Astro knowledge / General / Observing Reports

Milky Way naked-eye from SotoGrande, Spain

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Went out to dinner with coworkers last night. Went to a restaurant that is in a village on the outskirts of Algeciras. Not many people live around here anyway, and even fewer […]

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Astro knowledge / General / Observing Reports

Pearls before swine

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The waning moon has been looking pretty nice from Algeciras, Spain the past few days. Nice and high and bright in the early morning when heading off to work. I pointed out […]

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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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