MOST RECENT
General / Maintenance / Techniques / Technology
PemPro – Guido shows its power
PemPro needed some calibration before things would work today. Nothing major. I got it a little more dialed in. I finally figured out what it was complaining about — it thought it […]
FocusMax – Pumpkin is about dialed in
I was able to boot up FocusMax tonight and just go directly to “find star” and then “focus” and then “run 10 V-curves”. It had no problem finding a star, getting it […]
Clear nights coming in pairs now
It’s mid-March and I think that spring is finally starting to show some evidence of coming. The past couple of rain cycles, we are getting two days of clear instead of just […]
Decidedly odd weather
5pm, rain. 6pm, cloudy but “threatening” / drizzling. 8pm, serious hailstorm, lasted for an hour or so. 11pm, clear as a bell and (what looked like) steady seeing. 11pm is too late […]
Interesting weather pattern lately
About a week ago, the Pacific NW had a high-pressure system parked over it for several days, which gave them lots of clear (if very cold) weather, and sent a big pile […]
MaxIM – you learn something new every day
As I said in my last post, I learned about “Configurations” in MaxIM today. Very nice feature. I also a
Accessory / Focuser / Gear / Maintenance / Observing Reports / Techniques / Technology
FocusMax – relearning the V-curve
Things have changed a lot since the last time that I ran Focusmax. Among other things, I have built up a whole new astro-PC, and I never really understood FM well enough […]
Accessory / Focuser / Gear / Maintenance / Technology
Pumpkin focuser characteristics
ASCOM driver: EasyFocus Min steps: 0 Max steps: 30000 Speed: 250/Full Pumpkin + 300d + FF/FR + no Ha + IDAS LPS = position 23456
General / Maintenance / Observing Reports
Working for the weekend
I had a few things to do before getting started tonight. First, I replaced the brass worm gear with a steel one. This one is Art’s spare, which he used successfully for […]
Saturn, Feb. 26, 2010
I haven’t done any solar system photography in several years. In particular, Saturn has been a no-go for several years straight. This is a combination of my focus being on DSO photography, […]
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.