ARCHIVE May2007
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
M64, The Black Eye Galaxy in Canes Venatici
The galaxies around Ursa Major have been providing me with lots of opportunities to work on shooting stuff near the limit of the image scale I can really produce with Veronica and […]
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
M101, The Pinwheel Galaxy in Ursa Major
I attempted another 1-hour integration of M101. I think this really needs more integration time. I might be able to combine the hour from February and the hour from May into one […]
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
M3, Globular Cluster in Canes Venatici
After great success with M13, I decided to turn my attention to other Globular Clusters, or at least ones that get lots of press. So, I tried out M3 again. Just a […]
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography / Observing Reports
RE: Latest Astrophotos
Sweet! I really like the M13 one. It is totally Star Trek – warp speed captain! —–Original Message—– From: Jimbo S. Harris [mailto:jimbo@jimbo.net] Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 10:58 AM To: A. […]
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
M51, The Whirlpool Galaxy in Ursa Major
I went back to the unguided well one more time, this time positioned post-meridian-flip. I was losing a lot of images (because I failed to rebalance the scope after the flip), and […]
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
M63, The Sunflower Galaxy in Ursa Major
I tried out some 3-minute unguided images on M63. Worked OK. Lost a few images, and the clouds rolled in just about the time I needed to do a meridian flip… More […]
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography / Observing Reports
Astro Update
Hi, Although it was bitterly cold and windy out last night, and clouds kept threatening to roll in (which they never quite did), I was able to get some important proof-of-concept and […]
focus motor supplier
Home note: want http://www.electronickits.com/kit/complete/elec/ck1612.htm and either http://www.electronickits.com/kit/complete/motor/ck1405.htm (unipolar) OR http://www.electronickits.com/kit/complete/motor/ck1406.htm (bi-polar), depending on what the stepper is. Also, need to mod kit as shown in: http://www.orednet.org/~jgarlitz/focus_control.htm if it’s the bipolar kit, need […]
focus motor control
http://www.orednet.org/~jgarlitz/focus_control.htm
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.