Category: Astro knowledge
Astro knowledge / General / Observing Reports
Pearls before swine
The waning moon has been looking pretty nice from Algeciras, Spain the past few days. Nice and high and bright in the early morning when heading off to work. I pointed out […]
Astro knowledge / General / Observing Reports
Not quite in the Southern Hemisphere
I’m in Chennai, India for 2 weeks. As the plane pulled up to the airport terminal, I saw a sign showing the lat/lon of the city; it’s at 12°N latitude, pretty close […]
Astro knowledge / Focuser / Gear / Maintenance / Techniques
New equipment works, finally.
In order to get the new coma corrector working with the OAG inline, I had to try a lot of things before I found the right set that shoved the focal plane […]
Astro knowledge / General / Maintenance / Observing Reports
Taking what I could get
I drove back to Newark today to get the pier for the G-11. That ate a lot of time — I was on the road by 10a, got back at 4p or […]
Astro knowledge / General / Observing Reports
Happy "Leap" Day
July 20, 1969 One small step for man, One Giant Leap for Mankind I understand all the reasons we went. I understand all the reasons we stopped going. I understand all the […]
Astro knowledge / Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
Pumpkin's Return — A breath of fresh air
After 10 days of fighting Veronica, I’d had enough. Tonight, I swapped the camera back to Pumpkin, rebalanced, and tried my luck at two targets. With Cassiopeia showing above the house, I […]
Astro knowledge / Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
Veronica's Last Stand — the final straw
In a last-ditch effort to make Veronica work with the mount, and since it’s Friday night, I decided to really tweak the scope before starting up, then do a series of “test” […]
Astro knowledge / General / Maintenance / Optics / Technology
G-11 – Guiding Oscillation
I stacked the 16 frames shot last night into a single GIF animation. There is a very strange “retrograde motion” thing going on during the course of an evening. I don’t know […]
stacking vs. subframe
While I was testing out the Ha filter last night, I decided to test out a theory. Like most astrophotographers, I take lots of short subframes of my subject, then stack them […]
Astro knowledge / Observing Reports
Re: C9.25 first light
A, Once and for all, we are talking about two *different* parts of the sky. You are referring to: The Trapezium, Theta Orionis RA: 5h 35m 17s Dec: -5 23′ 27” http://www.astropix.com/HTML/B_WINTER/TRAPEZ.HTM […]
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.