Category: Telescope
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography / Telescope
Beauty the 12″ f/4 Newtonian Astrograph — First light
After spending some of my bonus last year on a new telescope, I spent a long (long) time getting the observatory ready to run with the new rig. There’s a story here, […]
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 […]
ATM / Gear / Maintenance / Techniques / Telescope
Trixie 2017 – First Light
After only nine days of penance to the New Telescope Curse, the astronomy gods handed me a break tonight, clear skies and a 6-day moon. Of course, by the time I was […]
Trixie 2017 and 04026 — Together again
The skies cleared a little just at dusk today. It’s been raining hard for several days, I wasn’t ready for any sky tonight. 4th NJP counterweight was in the travel gear from […]
Trixie rebuild 2017 – Parts is parts.
I have decided to keep the LTA as-is (I had considered moving the middle ring, but pole seats take a Lot of mental effort to do correctly, so I’m going to stick […]
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 […]
Deep Sky / Gear / General / Long Exposure Photography / Maintenance / Telescope
Trixie out, Pumpkin in
I had decided that I would leave Trixie on the mount, and focus on visual astronomy for awhile. I think that the Jr. Astronomer would appreciate learning to use the big scope, […]
Trixie 2011 – mods
As part of the work party, I put Trixie back on the mount. I got everything set up, and tried some guided exposures, and there’s definitely still flexure in the rig, even […]
Astro knowledge / Blog / Gear / General / Maintenance / Observing Reports / Techniques / Telescope
Back to basics.
I used to be good at this. Omg, gaggle of geese flying over. Local dogs wigging out. But, I digress. I got Really good at planetary, but had higher hopes, and this […]
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography / Telescope
Pumpkin out, Cassie in
There are quite a few planets coming around for a pass; Jupiter is up pretty early in the evening these days, and by morning, Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn are arrayed across the […]
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.