Category: Techniques
CCD Polar Alignment
Firmly in the “one picture is worth a thousand words” category, this is a quick, easy, and accurate method of performing a polar alignment on a telescope mount. No red crosshairs, no […]
CCD Polar Alignment using autoguider tracking
Polar Alignment using a CCD Camera Return to home <http://highenergyastro.homestead.com/index.html> One of the key things that must be done prior to a session of astrophotography is a good polar alignment. I have […]
PAC: from the horse's mouth
A, The guy who wrote Gemini (Rene Goerlich) had this to say about Polar Axis Correction, etc. 4 things of interest to note: 1) before 1st PAC, do a minimal pointing model […]
General / Maintenance / Techniques
pointing model building
When I build a pointing model using PAC on the Gemini, I get this strange behavior, where the error numbers are very large and then get smaller and smaller to some fairly […]
Polar Alignment : the latest chapter
A, It’s 12:20. I just got in from a polar alignment session that lasted almost 3 hours. The mac helpfully sang out the time at the top of the hour to make […]
AAVSO polar charts
http://www.aavso.org/observing/charts/vsp/index.html Not exactly sure which RA/Dec to use to get the NCP. +90 doesn’t work right. A, Attached is a chart (by the DSS, via AAVSO at http://www.aavso.org/observing/charts/vsp/index.html) of the NCP (the […]
fancy book learnin'
A, an excerpt from http://www.russellstreetobservatory.co.uk/equipment/G11pt4.html, a guy whose demand is 5 minutes unguided at 1000mm. I don’t think he’s going to get it, but he took great notes about his learning curve […]
HOWTO – calibrate a laser collimator
I bought an Orion laser collimator, but suspected that it was out of collimation, so I tried to adjust it, and got it *really* out of collimation, so I needed to realign […]
Photographic Polar Alignment
PHOTOGRAPHIC POLAR ALIGNMENT by Greg Beach The one, often elusive requirement for any astrophotographer and telescope owner is proper polar alignment. This allows long-exposure photographs to be taken in order to build-up […]
Gear / Solar System Photography / Techniques
Planetary camera / webcam autoguider
The other morning when I was awakened at 5am by sprinklers, I noticed that Jupiter was past meridian (meaning so was Sagittarius, but it was too light for me to see it). […]
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.