ARCHIVE October2004

Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
M42, The Great Orion Nebula
larger version The difference made by going to a dark sky site is stark.

Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
B33, The Horsehead Nebula in Orion
A decent try at this nebula which has a large range of brightness, from gigantic Zeta Orionis to the wispy details of the back-lit cloud.

The original long-exposure photography rig
This is Rig when it lived in my backyard in Brentwood. The skies were darker there, but Rig is in much cushier accommodations now… Centered around a Celestron CG-5GT mount and SBIG […]
RECENT UPDATE

Polar Alignment Calculations
Here’s a page that derives Polar Alignment Calculations. (update 5/2020: the original site is gone, so I found the text on Wayback and am inserting it below. This is by the original […]

Gear / Observatory / Telescope
Special Guest Star takes the mount at Hilltop O
The Astro Jedi needed somewhere to store his light sab—- I mean, bucket, and I was only too happy to accommodate him. I have decided that I need to come to a […]

General / Maintenance / Observatory
Dome shutter is motorized again!
I finally decided to bite the bullet and fix the shutter motor. Things went sideways last winter, and I’ve been opening the shutter manually (and tying it shut with rope, so we […]

Trixie 2017 – tube mods
I finally got around to cutting the MTA-UTA tubes to length; the only eyepiece that would come to focus with the focuser spacer in place is the Televue 55mm Plossl. If I […]
MOST COMMENTED
Observatory
Observatory 2.0 – Time has come today!
General / Maintenance
First Light, a deeper look
Mount / Observatory / Telescope
Observatory 2.0 – Result!
Observatory
Observatory 2.0 – The Pier goes in
Gear / General / Maintenance
Martin Farmer Wormblock installation notes
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
NGC2244, The Rosette Nebula
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
Another beautiful night.