Category: General
C9.25 radius blocks
I knew I should have bought DC925 rails when I was working on Trixie last summer… I went out and stimulated the Astromart economy and now I have a C9.25 but no […]
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 […]
Re: No Plans Yet
The natives are all very restless down here; haven’t seen the sun in 3 weeks. Virgins are being sacrificed.
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 […]
Re: No Plans Yet
I am a little concerned about the recent cloud cover — last night, I saw stars for the first time in 3 weeks. I think it’s supposed to be clear again tonight, […]
Re: C9.25 first light
I was a little worried about the weight of the new (and larger-aperture) OTA, but since it was a first light, I was running in minimal load mode; just the OTA, a […]
Re: ASTROMART – Response to ad #605811
I got the C9.25 out under the stars last night. Nice optics! I like the tape marks on the dovetail, helped to get it balanced quickly.
C9.25 first light
I first lighted thenew C9.25 last night. Optics seem pretty good. Stars seem decently sharp across the field of an eyepiece (I needed to align the finder, so I needed to use […]
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 […]
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.