ATM / Techniques

whatsup

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http://www.whatsup.ricksastro.com/findex.htm

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Observing Reports / Solar System Photography

Re: The answer is "yes"

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I too was up that night, with Diane this time. Anyway, it was hard to stay awake while staring at the moon, but was tres cool. Can’t wait to see your shots. […]

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Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography

M27, The Dumbbell Nebula in Vulpecula

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I’m having trouble getting the G11/SCT combo to work shooting to the East, for some reason. So, I decided to “make lemonade” and shoot to the West instead. This neatly avoids the […]

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Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography

M57, The Ring Nebula in Lyra

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First attempt at the Ring Nebula. The Ring Nebula has always been a little out of my reach, photographically. At 1′ in diameter, it’s a really, really small object. The Nikon D70’s […]

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Techniques

Polar Alignment Calculations

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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 […]

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Gear / Observatory / Telescope

Special Guest Star takes the mount at Hilltop O

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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 […]

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General / Maintenance / Observatory

Dome shutter is motorized again!

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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 […]

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ATM

Trixie 2017 – tube mods

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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 […]

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