Category: General
Camera / Gear / Maintenance
New Gear Night
I had been playing with Raspberry Pi 4 (running INDI/Ekos/KStars) to see if it is a valid replacement for ASCOM. So far, it’s still not quite there, for my motley set of […]
Electronics / General / Maintenance / Observatory
Recent maintenance updates
I hadn’t posted in awhile, and I just realized that I’ve been fixing some stuff in the observatory that probably warrant mentioning. First, I had a couple problems crop up during Snowpocalypse […]
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 […]
The moon is in Taurus
I’m certain that I’ve posted about the Zodiac and the planets before, but to briefly recap, the Moon passes through all of the constellations of the Zodiac every month. Almost all human […]
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 […]
Sirius and Rigel, high in the south
… were the only two stars I could see tonight. It’s been a blustery day punctuated with strong showers, and the wind has opened just a tiny seam in the cloud cover, […]
Aww, you missed me.
I was downtown, having a fancy date with my wife, when we got a text from W_, who was watching the house for the evening. It had been quite windy all day, […]
Spring cleaning
I spent some time in the observatory, tidying up after a pretty nice set of imaging runs this winter. I had mounted up Cassie a while ago, but wanted to see if […]
Astro knowledge / General / Observing Reports
Nice short session
After several days of clouds, and with a freak hailstorm this afternoon, the storm blew itself out for a bit, and we got clear skies for an hour or so right after […]
Astro knowledge / Blog / General
A night of thrashing
One reason that I like to leave my equipment all set up and ready to go is because it seems like it takes a couple of nights for the gear to all […]
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.