Category: Gear
A change at QB for Hilltop Observatory
Well, it happened again. The dawn of a new era in Hilltop Observatory. Today, the new imaging camera showed up in the mail. I bought it from Renaud Venne Landry, one of […]
Mount / Observatory / Telescope
Observatory 2.0 – Result!
And, finally, The Time, has indeed, Come Today. Some anthology later. Today, Observatory 2.0 has changed its call sign. Observatory 2.0 is now The ad Astra Observatory at Hilltop, Woodinville, WA, known […]
Focuser / Gear / Maintenance / Mount
Another layer of the onion
I spent some time in the fasteners aisle at McLendon’s Hardware on Saturday morning, looking for longer collimation bolts for Trixie. The mirror cell has nice, easy-to-source hardware (1/4-20 countersunk for the […]
ATM / Gear / Techniques / Telescope
Veronica – collimation problems
Veronica has never quite recovered from the Frankenstein act I pulled on her when I was trying to get the RCC working, and she has one remaining thorn in her side, a […]
Trixie trials
Clear nights come about once a week right now. It was suckerholes until about 9pm and then clear until about midnight. I spent some time collimating everything. First, I collimated Trixie, which […]
Trixie takes a test drive
It was a gorgeous sunny day today in Seattle (very strange for mid February), and the clear skies held up until nearly 11pm. Kismet or dumb luck, I knew that this was […]
Astro knowledge / ATM / Gear / General / Maintenance / Telescope
Trixie gets the laser test
My astro-Jedi friend Art came over to kick Trixie’s tires a little. He brought a laser, did a rough collimation, and then hung some weight off the focuser (in the form of […]
ATM / Gear / General / Maintenance / Telescope
Trixie comes out of hibernation
When I left CA, I had just finished doing a pretty major rebuild of Trixie, which as you recall is my attempt at a 13″ Newtonian Astrograph. The newly-trussed frame seems very […]
Camera / Gear / Technology
Still trying to get the observatory computer working
So after much gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair, I figured out that it’s going to be next to impossible for me to get the rig up and running fully in […]
Re-wiring the rig
All of a sudden, my mount is dripping with cables all over the place. In order to set up a full astrophotography rig (at least for mine), I need the following cables: […]
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.