Ad Astra Observatory

It’s so cute when I use my a highly-tuned astrograph with an eyepiece of all things.

Actually, I’m just lazy. Because I haven’t really figured out the whole motor focuser thing, I fear removing the camera, because then I’ll never get it focused right again, and I’ll be back to an evening of shooting photos of Sirius and checking out the diffraction spikes.

I have 5 eyepieces: 32mm Plossl, 10mm Plossl, 9mm reticle (Plossl), and 2 University Optics Orthos, a 7mm and a 5mm. The 5mm works really well as a “Barlowed” 10mm. If I’d spend the time to train my eyes to see astro-detail, I’m sure I’d enjoy using this set.

As it is, on a given night, I might use the 32mm to figure out where the heck that unfocused star is, then center the unfocused star with the reticle, then my use for eyepieces is done. I don’t think any of the glass has eyecups anymore, and all of it is in dire need of cleaning, since I don’t spend much time making sure they stay free of dust, either. sigh.

I feel a little embarrassed when I’m doing visual. Like I’m using my Ferrari to go pick up groceries.

I do need to get back into planetary photography, though. Saturn is about to become a pain in the ass to photograph. I refuse to shoot Jupiter while it’s down in the muck. It’ll be a couple more years before it becomes a good Fall target again.

Plus I don’t know where the webcam focuses, so I need to figure out whether I can just use a parfocalizing ring to bring it to focus. I am going to order a 3/4” drawtube from Moonlite. I shouldn’t need more focus travel than that, and it will hopefully cut down on vignetting.