MOST RECENT
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 […]
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
NGC6939, Open Cluster in Cygnus
Again, Cygnus is not really my first thought when it comes to open clusters (at least, not ones that seem to have no nebulosity surrounding them). But this cluster could rival anything […]
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
NGC6946, Spiral Galaxy in Cygnus
Cygnus is not generally the area of sky you think of when you think “hey, showpiece galaxy”. But here you go. NGC 6946 has been dodging me for years, so I decided […]
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
NGC4565, Edge-on Spiral Galaxy in Coma Berenices
Normally, I don’t go in much for edge-on galaxies. I just don’t think that I really get enough pixels to work with for the amount of effort that goes in. But NGC4565 […]
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 […]
Elbrus Solved and Unsolved images
These are a couple of images that I am trying to solve in Elbrus. This one solved OK, with these parameters. This one, taken after moving the scope, but without rotating the […]
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. […]
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
M100, Spiral Galaxy in Virgo
Another night hunting galaxies in Virgo. This time I went after M100, which I was pretty certain to be a spiral. I had some initial difficulty getting Elbrus working. It took about […]
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 […]
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.