ARCHIVE May2010
NGC 7023, The Iris Nebula in Cepheus
I had a clear night on my hands and was thrashing about looking for something to shoot. I decided to shoot this target more or less on a whim. I have to […]
Astro knowledge / Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
M57, The Ring Nebula in Lyra
The C9.25 finally brings some pixels to this tiny object. Shooting with a DSLR brings a different perspective on “useful astronomy targets” compared with most dedicated astrocams. In the beginning, there was […]
Gear / General / Maintenance / Mount
RA drift
The NJP is displaying some RA drift. It’s easy enough to guide out, but it’s definitely strange. I need to gather more data. But I think that what I’m seeing is that […]
Lost in the stars
While sitting on a flight from Tokyo to Singapore, I experienced something that I’ve not had since those early days sitting on the patio at The Camden; I looked out the plane […]
General / Maintenance / Observing Reports
Bahtinov Mask, Business trip, and clouds
I have a trip coming up tomorrow, so I was thinking about resting up before it. But then I got a crazy idea, and decided to follow through on it. I want […]
Ennui
New moon is either tonight or last night. I’m never entirely sure. But essentially, it’s, like, moonless out there. I think it’s been clear the last 2 or 3 nights. I haven’t […]
Last(?) rainstorm of the season
After a cloudless week, the longest stretch since autumn, I left town for a couple of days, only to come back to clouds on Sunday. There were clouds and a bunch of […]
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
NGC6939, Open Cluster in Cygnus
Again, Cygnus is not really my first thought when it comes to open clusters (at least, not ones that seem to have no nebulosity surrounding them). But this cluster could rival anything […]
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
NGC6946, Spiral Galaxy in Cygnus
Cygnus is not generally the area of sky you think of when you think “hey, showpiece galaxy”. But here you go. NGC 6946 has been dodging me for years, so I decided […]
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
NGC4565, Edge-on Spiral Galaxy in Coma Berenices
Normally, I don’t go in much for edge-on galaxies. I just don’t think that I really get enough pixels to work with for the amount of effort that goes in. But NGC4565 […]
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.