Category: Observing Reports
Harvest moon from WA
The moon in WA was pretty dang low – probably 20 or so deg. The Moon is in Sagittarius, at its lowest point on the Ecliptic. 20deg is a good guess — […]
Astro knowledge / General / Observing Reports
Chinese zodiac
Chinese Year of the Rat this year (my “sign”, you guess which multiple of 12 I am). I’ve decided that the “rat” constellation must be Aries, since the “Ox” is clearly Taurus. […]
insomniac quick look
Nice moon and Jupiter pairing last night at 3am in Freeport, Bahamas.
news from the front
The wind rolled in for a few days around the new moon and gave me a chance to do some astronomy. Also, my lungs cleared up some. Now the weather has stagnated […]
Astro knowledge / General / Observing Reports
better to be lucky than good
So I’m on 2 trips, lasting 2 weeks each, in the next 6 weeks. As you know by now, the astrophotography part of the month is only 2 weeks long (from 3 […]
Trixie – all coming together
The tube inserts arrived yesterday, so I now have all the parts I need to put the scope together. My only fear is that I’ll mis-attach the focuser board. Everything else will […]
Astro knowledge / General / Observing Reports
Chinese zodiac
If you get a chance, take a look at the sky tonight (June 26, 2008). Jupiter is in about the same position it was when I was born (it takes 12 years […]
Pumpkin's huge FOV
It was clear last night, but the forest fires put up so much smoke that I couldn’t see anything in the way of stars. I just calculated Pumpkin’s FOV and compared that […]
Not getting a lot of stars in before The Blessed Event
I am ashamed to admit that I’ve more or less given up on astrophotography this month. The spring galaxies are getting away from me again, and I hate to think about a […]
New Technology
Weekends are a mad rush to get things done in the yard before The Blessed Event. The generation gap with technology is interesting. I wonder if I’m going to get to a […]
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.