CarolG
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 10/16/06
Posts: 825
Loc: Oklahoma
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I tend to agree with using something low tech and not permanent. Looking at your pictures, would something simple like an old blanket or sheet rolled up and stuffed into the opening work? If you did this from the inside, it wouldn't show on the outside. It would be a hassle to have to take it down and put it up all the time, but wasps are a hassle too, especially mud daubers. Their nests are a real pain to take down and they're messy to remove. The fact that they've already built a nest on your OTA is really frightening!!
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Carol
Cor Caroli Observatory
NS11 XLT w/ HyperStar
TV85 w/FeatherTouch/DM4/SC on a Scopebuggy
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Scott K
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 09/13/07
Posts: 1406
Loc: Dallas, TX & Eufaula, OK
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Karen: I don't think the velcro will survive outside in the weather. Maybe I can do something similar though, with screening material and magnets.
Hubert: I am going to look into your idea. I'd mount a board on the stationary (blue) edges. I'd need to find brushes with sufficiently long bristles, but the nice thing is those wouldn't interfere with the cables, or the operation of the shutter.
The only issue would be that there would still be a gap between the top of the door (the white part in the picture, and the bottom of the board. I think I could weatherstrip pretty on the bottom of the board, though, and leave little, if any, gap between the board and the top of the door, but still allow the dome to rotate. (It is important that any solution that's installed inside the dome allow the dome to rotate - if the controller malfunctions, the dome will spin. If something blocks the rotation, you will damage the motors.)
Honestly, if I didn't need to enter and exit through the door, you could just leave this in place permanently. (Actually for imaging, it would be swell to be able to LEAVE the seal in place, so that you didn't have to go out to the dome to open and shut it.
I don't suppose the seal has to be really tight to keep the wasps out, does it?
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CarolG
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 10/16/06
Posts: 825
Loc: Oklahoma
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Scott, when your dome rotates, the entire structure moves, right? I forgot about the door always being at the slit opening. That's a big problem when thinking about how to close those openings. Do you know if any electronic pest controllers ( Like These ) work? There seems to be mixed reviews about their effectiveness, but some seem to think they work.
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Carol
Cor Caroli Observatory
NS11 XLT w/ HyperStar
TV85 w/FeatherTouch/DM4/SC on a Scopebuggy
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Pedestal
Post Laureate
Reged: 03/11/06
Posts: 3843
Loc: Smoggy Bottom, Baytown,Texas
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The wallpaper brushes come in a couple of different lengths, obviously you'll want the longer brisle ones.
Edited to add: take a look at the spackling brushes, too.
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Hubert
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www.smoggybottom.org
Edited by Pedestal (06/21/09 06:07 PM)
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Booji
member
Reged: 10/12/07
Posts: 59
Loc: North Carolina, USA
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Strip brushes, that is what I use.
http://tinyurl.com/mttgl5
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Be seeing you,
Booji
-----------------------------------
Losmandy G11 non GOTO
Vixen GPD2
Vixen FL102S APO
Edmund Scientific 8" reflector (red tube)
Vixen VMC110L
Fujinon 7x50 FMTR-SX Binos
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Scott K
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 09/13/07
Posts: 1406
Loc: Dallas, TX & Eufaula, OK
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Carol, some photos to show how things move. First outside:
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Scott K
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 09/13/07
Posts: 1406
Loc: Dallas, TX & Eufaula, OK
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Inside:
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Scott K
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 09/13/07
Posts: 1406
Loc: Dallas, TX & Eufaula, OK
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Quote:
Strip brushes, that is what I use.
http://tinyurl.com/mttgl5
Thanks for the link, Booji! Are the strip brushes easy to bend, say into a semi-circular shape? Also, how do you attach them?
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Scott K
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 09/13/07
Posts: 1406
Loc: Dallas, TX & Eufaula, OK
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By the way, I went back into the dome this afternoon to fix a broken contact on my shutter as one of them broke while I was using the dome last night (see attached), when I kept noticing mud-daubers buzzing around me. So I look around, and I find two more nests, one small one and one fairly big one, both up in the upper parts of the dome, where I can't reach them easily. I sprayed the mud-daubers, because they were really making it hard to work, and knocked the nests out.
My wife is going to construct something for me to temporarily block the opening, and it will involve old towels and velcro. My neighbor offered to cut a curved piece of wood on which I could mount some brushes for a more permanent solution.
As for tomorrow, I think I'm going to chemical warfare! 
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Mike Clemens
Post Laureate
Reged: 11/26/05
Posts: 4248
Loc: Wasilla, Alaska 61N
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I noticed > 100 little spots on the tar paper underneath my roof where hornets? yellowjackets? have attempted to build nests but cannot get purchase on the tar paper.
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Booji
member
Reged: 10/12/07
Posts: 59
Loc: North Carolina, USA
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I was able to bend them to fit a 4.5 ft radius, pretty sure they will take a tighter bend. The companies that sell them also sell strip brush holders, aluminum strips that can be used in a variety of configurations. They can also be cut without the brushes falling out.
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Be seeing you,
Booji
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Losmandy G11 non GOTO
Vixen GPD2
Vixen FL102S APO
Edmund Scientific 8" reflector (red tube)
Vixen VMC110L
Fujinon 7x50 FMTR-SX Binos
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Scott K
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 09/13/07
Posts: 1406
Loc: Dallas, TX & Eufaula, OK
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Quote:
I was able to bend them to fit a 4.5 ft radius, pretty sure they will take a tighter bend. The companies that sell them also sell strip brush holders, aluminum strips that can be used in a variety of configurations. They can also be cut without the brushes falling out.
Excellent stuff, really thanks! If this works out, I may install a whole set of them around the dome as a dust / weather seal.
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csa/montana
Wild Spirit
Reged: 05/14/05
Posts: 40129
Loc: montana
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Wow! Scott, I sure hope you get the wasps blocked out of your observatory! I'd be running for my life!
You might be able to use some of these brush strips to block the area.
brush strips
Thanks for sharing this problem with us, the suggestions, & your final solution can be of benefit for others.
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Carol
AstroTech 16" Dob (Thanks ASTRONOMICS!)
Vixen 80MF/AstroTech Voyager
Masuyama's 7.5, 15, 25W, 35mm,
Pentaxes; 5XW, 7XL, 10XW.
14mm Meade 4000 UWA
TV Panoptics; 22, 35
DreamCatcher Dobservatory, #2
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Scott K
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 09/13/07
Posts: 1406
Loc: Dallas, TX & Eufaula, OK
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Quote:
Wow! Scott, I sure hope you get the wasps blocked out of your observatory! I'd be running for my life!
Well, no danger to my life, fortunately, but unfortunately some danger to my equipment. 
Quote:
You might be able to use some of these brush strips to block the area.
brush strips
Thanks for sharing this problem with us, the suggestions, & your final solution can be of benefit for others.
Interesting that you mention mcmaster-carr. It turns out that Trevor (Hornblower) has a T.I. dome, and used these brushes as a dust seal for his dome. I'm going to PM him, and the maker of T.I. domes for instructions on how to install them. (I thought I remembered something like this, and did a search last night, and sure enough, he posted about that here on the forums.)
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csa/montana
Wild Spirit
Reged: 05/14/05
Posts: 40129
Loc: montana
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I'm going to order some, to seal the small gap between the roof, & the fold-down back wall. Right now, I have a rubber strip across it, but it hangs up, when opening the roof.
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Carol
AstroTech 16" Dob (Thanks ASTRONOMICS!)
Vixen 80MF/AstroTech Voyager
Masuyama's 7.5, 15, 25W, 35mm,
Pentaxes; 5XW, 7XL, 10XW.
14mm Meade 4000 UWA
TV Panoptics; 22, 35
DreamCatcher Dobservatory, #2
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GrassyPond
sage
Reged: 02/06/07
Posts: 317
Loc: South Georgia
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Hi Scott,
I had a broken contact exactlly like yours.I redrilled it and re-looped it into a smaller loop. It has been holding for about 5 months now.
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Turtle Creek Observatory
Joe
12" LX200R
MallinCam Hyper Plus Color
10' HomeDome Automated with LesveDome
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Scott K
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 09/13/07
Posts: 1406
Loc: Dallas, TX & Eufaula, OK
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Hi Joe,
Yeah, I did that too. It's working. Now if only the dome would "home" reliably.
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wb9sat
sage
Reged: 06/16/09
Posts: 328
Loc: Eagar, Arizona USA
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This reply is a bit off topic Richard, but Vicks is also helpful to keep ants from walking down the string of hanging hummingbird feeders. And...if you have a fungus on your toe nails, it'll kill the fungus instantly. No prescription needed. LOL
Bill
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Bill Logan
Logan Observatory
Eagar, Arizona, USSA
Elevation: 7,400 feet (2,600 meters) ASL
NexStar 11 GPS on Milburn wedge
Permanent steel pier
12' x 12' Roll-off-roof
WO ZS-66ED refractor
Meade DSI Pro II monochrome
Meade DSI II OSC
Orion 7nm Narrowband filters
73 de WB9SAT
[url=http://loganobservatory.shutterfly.com[/url]
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Scott K
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 09/13/07
Posts: 1406
Loc: Dallas, TX & Eufaula, OK
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OK, so the current fix is a towel stuffed into the opening, and bug-spray around the couple of areas where they can enter the dome. I found no nests tonight, but did find two dead mud daubers.
Current score:
Mud-daubers: 6
Scott: 3
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Chris Schroeder
Postmaster
Reged: 12/11/04
Posts: 6548
Loc: N.E. WI Sky Glow
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That's good news Scott 
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Chris
Mallincam Color Hyper Plus
10" DSH with SC DSC, CPC 800 XLT
M110 Doublet ED, AT 102Achro, ZS80FD 10th Anniv, ZS66SD, PST
CG5-AGT, EZ-Touch, Voyager
POD XL3 http://POD.SchroederCity.com
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