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Astro knowledge / General / Maintenance / Observing Reports
M42 is a great tester object
M42 is a great “tester” object. It’s big, bright, has an easy to find star pattern surrounding it, and can even be seen in the viewfinder of the camera. So I end […]
Astro knowledge / Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography / Maintenance
A tale of two images
This is a tale of two images. These were taken on successive nights. Same setup, same exposure time, everything. The first night was unguided. … and the second night was autoguided with […]
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
M64, The Black Eye Galaxy in Canes Venatici
After 4 overseas trips in 4 months, I finally had some time to really get some time under the stars and get back to the “spring” galaxies that I’d raced to catch […]
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
NGC 2174, Emission Nebula in Orion
One of those objects that just doesn’t get much press. This is a huge nebula, the size of M42, and well-placed in the sky, between the foot of Gemini and the head […]
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
M63, The Sunflower Galaxy in Ursa Major
This time I went nuts and punched up 4(!) hours on M63. That’s by far the most I’ve ever done. This was unguided, while I was still testing out the new mount. […]
Re: my first MaxDSLR photo run
On Feb 27, 2008, at 8:53 AM, Jimbo S. Harris wrote: > At 08:24 AM 2/27/2008 -0800, you wrote: >>> It seems to be able to do FIT, TIF, or RAW. If […]
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
M81, Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major
I decided to quit messing around with trying to get both galaxies in the field at once, and just concentrate on getting a good shot of M81. This is a 3-hour integration, […]
Gemini NMEA 0183 GPS info
http://www.psychologie.uni-regensburg.de/Zimmer/trafficresearch/NMEA0183/index.html http://home.mira.net/~gnb/gps/nmea.html#gprmc According to the Gemini manual, pp.85, “Gemini requires only the “Recommended Minimum” (RMC) NMEA 0183 sentence to be sent,” This is: $GPRMC,225446,A,4916.45,N,12311.12,W,000.5,054.7,191194,020.3,E*68 225446 Time of fix 22:54:46 UTC A Navigation […]
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Lunar eclipse images
Hi, A few images of the lunar eclipse are posted on http://gallery.mac.com/rozeta#gallery . Alex
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.