ARCHIVE January2017
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
M106, Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major
I got Cassie back on the mount, and now my target selection has totally changed. All the tolerances need to be a little tighter with the longer focal length, so I decided […]
Pretty conjunction tonight
Venus and Mars have been putting on a show for the past month or so, and once a month, the Moon drops by for a visit. I missed it last month, don’t […]
General / Maintenance / Observing Reports / Techniques
Sometimes, not everything goes right.
One for the blooper reel. This is just a single subframe. On a good night, I take 6-10 of these. On a poor night, I get more like 3. Sometimes, I get […]
ATM / Gear / Maintenance / Telescope
Soon, Trixie. Soon.
Because I’ve made so much progress on the observatory of late, I was looking over my Bookmarks, to see if anything needed updating. Trixie (look in the tag cloud) is on-hold right […]
Finally got a second monitor working
The original design for the observatory included multiple monitors, each displaying some important telemetry or other. During the build process, I decided it would be cool to have these driven by Raspberry […]
Maintenance / Observatory / Technology
A new Horizon (image)
B_ spent a little time clambering around on the roof of the observatory this morning; I really wanted to see if I could implement a cool feature in the star chart software. […]
Focuser / Gear / Maintenance / Observatory
Spring time – Pumpkin out, Cassie in
I’ve been working over Astromart again, trying to build up a “big boy” set of eyepieces, you know, for that public outreach I never do 🙂 Anyway, so far I’ve picked up […]
ATM / Electronics / Observatory
Dome automation – We control the vertical
Well, that is satisfying in a way that’s hard to describe. After thrashing for nearly 2 years over how to install limit switches in the dome’s shutter, I finally started making progress […]
ATM / Electronics / Observatory / Technology
Observatory automation – Dome visual telemetry now online
After much huffing and puffing, I finally came around to a solution for video telemetry form the dome. 3 IP cameras (D-Link DCS-934L if you’re interested), I installed them into the places […]
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
NGC1499, The California Nebula
I always have a hard time getting around to nebulae in Perseus, Casseiopeia, &c. I don’t know why — maybe I’m still chasing the Summer constellations, or maybe that’s when it starts […]
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.