Category: General
Astro knowledge / Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
M57, The Ring Nebula in Lyra
The C9.25 finally brings some pixels to this tiny object. Shooting with a DSLR brings a different perspective on “useful astronomy targets” compared with most dedicated astrocams. In the beginning, there was […]
Gear / General / Maintenance / Mount
RA drift
The NJP is displaying some RA drift. It’s easy enough to guide out, but it’s definitely strange. I need to gather more data. But I think that what I’m seeing is that […]
Lost in the stars
While sitting on a flight from Tokyo to Singapore, I experienced something that I’ve not had since those early days sitting on the patio at The Camden; I looked out the plane […]
General / Maintenance / Observing Reports
Bahtinov Mask, Business trip, and clouds
I have a trip coming up tomorrow, so I was thinking about resting up before it. But then I got a crazy idea, and decided to follow through on it. I want […]
Ennui
New moon is either tonight or last night. I’m never entirely sure. But essentially, it’s, like, moonless out there. I think it’s been clear the last 2 or 3 nights. I haven’t […]
Last(?) rainstorm of the season
After a cloudless week, the longest stretch since autumn, I left town for a couple of days, only to come back to clouds on Sunday. There were clouds and a bunch of […]
Astro knowledge / General / Observing Reports
Pointing East vs West
For some reason, I have always had trouble trying to shoot objects to the West (with the mount tracking things as they are setting). I have tailored my whole astrophotography psyche to […]
Lament of the sleep-deprived
Believe me, there are worse things in the astronomy hobby than being so tired that you just can’t face another clear night. Normally, when the moon is bright in the night sky, […]
minor maintenance
I rebalanced the scope so that it’s balanced rather than purposely off-balance. I also added a 12v fan to the scope to hopefully help control dew. We’ll see if it does anything. […]
Astro knowledge / Deep Sky / General / Long Exposure Photography / Technology
M87, Elliptical Galaxy in Virgo
I have avoided the Virgo Galaxies for years. The reasons are many, but chief among them is that a lot of the Virgo galaxies are elliptical, which essentially means that they look […]
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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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.