Category: General
What does an arcsecond look like? xkcd to the rescue!
http://xkcd.org/1276/ I believe the most interesting object on the page is “Betelgeuse”. Note that Betelgeuse is 643 light years away (that’s 643 * 6 trillion miles), but is so big (if it […]
Clear tonight
.. but I’m worn out on astronomy. I spent the night inside. Next clear sky, I’ll be back out there again, I’m just tired of lifting the heavy scope only to get […]
Chasing suckerholes
I saw an Iridium flare tonight. I checked Heavens-above, and it turns out that Iridium 10 flared over Hilltop at 7:40pm in the SE, which is right where I saw the bright […]
Focuser / Gear / Maintenance / Mount
Another layer of the onion
I spent some time in the fasteners aisle at McLendon’s Hardware on Saturday morning, looking for longer collimation bolts for Trixie. The mirror cell has nice, easy-to-source hardware (1/4-20 countersunk for the […]
Astro knowledge / ATM / Gear / General / Maintenance / Telescope
Trixie gets the laser test
My astro-Jedi friend Art came over to kick Trixie’s tires a little. He brought a laser, did a rough collimation, and then hung some weight off the focuser (in the form of […]
ATM / Gear / General / Maintenance / Telescope
Trixie comes out of hibernation
When I left CA, I had just finished doing a pretty major rebuild of Trixie, which as you recall is my attempt at a 13″ Newtonian Astrograph. The newly-trussed frame seems very […]
Camera / Gear / General / Maintenance
USB 2.0 FTW!
Since I’m sure that someday my random musings will help someone out in Google-land fix their problem, I’m posting a reminder to myself and others about the snag I ran into while […]
Camera / Gear / General / Maintenance / Mount
Another frustrating night
The sky has cleared up at least a little on 3 successive weekends — it’s like the stars miss me and want me to come visit again. So I’ve been giving my […]
Gear / General / Maintenance / Mount
NJP – oh, so *that’s* the problem
The NJP can GOTO again! Art and I spent some time diagnosing and then fixing the problem, which turned out to be an unplugged Dec encoder cable. Now that the mount is […]
Gear / General / Maintenance / Mount
Test things while it’s light out
In a stroke of strange luck, it was clear out tonight, the very next day after I got the new VM. I took the mount out in stages, first just the mount […]
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.