Category: Observatory
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 […]
Electronics / General / Maintenance / Observatory
Recent maintenance updates
I hadn’t posted in awhile, and I just realized that I’ve been fixing some stuff in the observatory that probably warrant mentioning. First, I had a couple problems crop up during Snowpocalypse […]
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 […]
Observatory gets a new nametag
Ad Astra Observatory at Hilltop finally got an official sign. I’d been using one I’d had lying around; it was a test cut on a piece of scrap wood. So, once I […]
Hilltop Observatory Control Panel, thoughts on design
Here’s what I have: Here’s where I’m going with it: I know, not a big delta. I even have all the mointor-y bits working, just need to mount the screens and … […]
Aww, you missed me.
I was downtown, having a fancy date with my wife, when we got a text from W_, who was watching the house for the evening. It had been quite windy all day, […]
Astro knowledge / General / Observatory / Observing Reports
Star party at Hilltop O
We hosted guests this evening at The ad Astra Observatory at Hilltop, Woodinville, Wa. B_, R_ & M_ stopped by for a really pretty and clear, but brr cold night at mid-winter. […]
Finally got a second monitor working
The original design for the observatory included multiple monitors, each displaying some important telemetry or other. During the build process, I decided it would be cool to have these driven by Raspberry […]
Maintenance / Observatory / Technology
A new Horizon (image)
B_ spent a little time clambering around on the roof of the observatory this morning; I really wanted to see if I could implement a cool feature in the star chart software. […]
Focuser / Gear / Maintenance / Observatory
Spring time – Pumpkin out, Cassie in
I’ve been working over Astromart again, trying to build up a “big boy” set of eyepieces, you know, for that public outreach I never do 🙂 Anyway, so far I’ve picked up […]
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.