ARCHIVE June2009
General / Maintenance / Observing Reports
Astro maintenance — work to be done
While I was putting the dust cover back on the scope this morning, I accidentally bumped Pumpkin out of focus. Since it’s such a pain to focus through the Ha filter, and […]
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
Familiar landscape — NGC 6888 and Sadr
I was running out of ideas of things to shoot; I’m getting pretty worn out from several nights in a row of being up late shooting, and I’m starting to make bad […]
Long Exposure Photography / Observing Reports
In search of more Cygnus nebulosity — Sh2-115, 116, and 112
It was cloudy on Saturday night, but Sunday night I decided to try out another run at the Cygnus Milky Way. I have a decently large target list of nebulae that are […]
Pumpkin hits FOV limit – IC1396
I went off in search of more Ha targets in Cygnus tonight. Among “famous” astrophoto targets, IC1396 is one of those huge targets that defy most attempts to capture them in one […]
Going off-script: More Ha in Cygnus
I am attempting to work my way around Cygnus, and intended to shoot the region near Sadr (IC1318). This region is large enough that even Pumpkin can only capture a piece of […]
Cutting swathes through the summer Milky Way
The shutter was open for about 4 hours total last night. These have had darks and bias subtracted but no flats (my flat box is dead). This is all through the Ha […]
Maintenance / Observing Reports
The Gizmo — I love it when a plan comes together
I deployed the new Gizmo in anger for the first time last night, pot controlling the exposure length, hooked up to the Gemini ST-4 port, hooked up to the Canon, LCD and […]
ATM / Electronics / General
Once more into the breach – new Gizmo on the way
When I started doing DSLR astrophotography, I quickly found that the on-camera limitation of 30sec exposures was frustrating. So, bulb exposures are necessary. At the time, nothing existed to easily interface my […]
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.