Category: Maintenance
Maintenance / Observatory / Technology
Re: Mac-as-Astro-machine
I just picked up a Mac mini to use as an astronomy machine out in the observatory. Essentially, I need something that can run headless, and provide USB ports to the various […]
Astro knowledge / General / Maintenance / Observing Reports
M42 is a great tester object
M42 is a great “tester” object. It’s big, bright, has an easy to find star pattern surrounding it, and can even be seen in the viewfinder of the camera. So I end […]
Astro knowledge / Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography / Maintenance
A tale of two images
This is a tale of two images. These were taken on successive nights. Same setup, same exposure time, everything. The first night was unguided. … and the second night was autoguided with […]
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography / Maintenance
NGC 6960, The Witch’s Broom, part of the Veil Nebula in Cygnus
Another attempt at “The Witch’s Broom” portion of the Veil. Despite this being almost 3 hours of integration time, This still came out pretty dim and noisy. Maybe 3-minute subframes would be […]
New mount = Happy
After a couple of days of being “closed for renovation”, the ad Astra Observatory at Newark, CA is back in business with the new Losmandy G-11 mount. I had to modify the […]
Maintenance / Observatory / Observing Reports
Re: Ad Astra Observatory now accepting photons
Looking good. D — “Jimbo S. Harris” <jimbo@jimbo.net> wrote: > I thought the Build Team should get the first look > at the output of the > fully functional Ad Astra Observatory […]
dec slop
TRICKS TO SOLVE THE DEC GEAR SLOP/SLOW MOTOR PROBLEMS: DEC axis steps: 1)Before going any further, refer to Mike Dodd’s excellent article over on the CGE group in his folder on Autoguiding […]
backlash correction
There are two adjustments you can make on each axis to minimize backlash, the play in the worm mount and the meshing of the worm to the axis gear. The worms on […]
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.