Category: Gear
Creating a lightbox for flats
I finally knuckled under to the pressure of the dust bunnies and decided to shoot “flat field” frames with my astrophotos. A “flat” is a photo of an evenly illuminated surface. Since […]
Re: SBig, to be or not to be?
Art Morton wrote: > Jimbo, > > > SBIG: > > You comment about getting an SBIG is prophetic. The problem really is that it’s a *self-fulfilling* prophecy. There’s no reason that […]
Re: call me crazy
Art Morton wrote: > You hit the cruxes of the matter, the secondary size. The other thing > I remember battling was f/ and being able to see the secondary when > […]
call me crazy
A, Just ordered a 3/4” travel drawtube from Moonlite. I have to wait for their next CNC run to get it, but he’s only charging me $50 for it. I should be […]
Re: shortest possible drawtube?
Hi Ron, When you get back from WSP, and during your next CNC run, whenever that is, I’d like a 3/4” travel drawtube with compression ring fitting. I’d also like to order […]
Astro knowledge / Focuser / Optics
Re: visual astronomy
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 […]
Lightbox for taking flat-field frames
Check out my new astro toy. I made it myself, as you can see. Cost me ~$15 (that’s half structure and half electronics). Took 2 evenings (could have finished in an afternoon […]
Gear / Long Exposure Photography / Observing Reports
Re: So, what is skyglow? Must need a dark site
A, Sigh. I wonder what I would have done if I’d started doing astronomy now instead of 4 years ago. This guy went from a Canon 400D + Orion ED80 + Orion […]
focuser settings
1) rack focuser all the way in, set this to 30,000 (pos1) 2) drive focuser out until it stops, see what FM says the focuser pos is (pos2) 3) set one end […]
focuser direction swap
http://www.lazyfocus.com/docs/EasyFocus/EasyFocus_Manual.htm hold the “in” button (one closest to DB9) during bootup.
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.