Category: Optics
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography / Maintenance / Optics
Another night of strange guide errors – IC 5146
OK, this is getting silly. Either I have no idea how to balance a telescope properly (which is not outside of the realm of reason), or balance is not the problem with […]
Re: call me crazy
Art Morton wrote: > You hit the cruxes of the matter, the secondary size. The other thing > I remember battling was f/ and being able to see the secondary when > […]
Re: C9.25 first light
Finder alignment is always a little tricky the first time out. Luckily, I can see M42 in the eyepiece. Or through the camera’s viewfinder, for that matter. I was all pleased with […]
Astro knowledge / Focuser / Optics
Re: visual astronomy
It’s so cute when I use my a highly-tuned astrograph with an eyepiece of all things. Actually, I’m just lazy. Because I haven’t really figured out the whole motor focuser thing, I […]
Re: Last night Raw
Art Morton wrote: >> It’s continually amazing to me how close our FOVs are. That’s totally random, given that we’re using different size chips and different focal length scopes. Or maybe it’s […]
modded DSLR IR response
The February 2009 issue of S&T, pp. 81, has a side-by-side photographic example and explanation of the UV/IR cut filter in DSLRs. The UV/IR cut filter that comes with the camera is […]
Whence C9.25?
I decided to upgrade the C-8 to a C9.25. As a photographer, I need different lenses to do different work. The 8” is awesome down to ~10′, but below that, it’s pretty […]
He hasn't marked it "Pending" yet, but
http://www.astromart.com/classifieds/details.asp?classified_id=605811 is my new scope. I got the go-ahead for an IOU from SWMBO, selling the C-8 and the DSI and the broken 300D should cover most of it. I have been […]
Focuser / Maintenance / Optics
Re: scope getting dialed in
Art Morton wrote: > With a couple more moon nights you will have a perfectly calibrated G-11 I hope so; It really is a lot of new stuff to learn. Someday I’m […]
AT66ED field flatness
A, Here’s a shot of Andromeda by a guy who has the AT66 and the 0.8x field flattener: http://www.pbase.com/patjoja/image/90413020/original Note that the corners still have wonky-looking stars. Hm. I’m beginning to wonder […]
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 […]
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Another beautiful night.