TAG Autoguider
New gear on the way
Time to upgrade some stuff. I finally lost patience with my Meade reticle eyepiece. It’s the eyepiece I use the most, but it’s designed for people who manually guide; the reticle is […]
Making an eFinder
How to make an eFinder from a 9×50 finderscope, in several easy steps.
finding OAG guide stars
http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbarchive/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/1691614/page/413/view/collapsed/sb/9/o/all
General / Maintenance / Techniques
Zen Autoguiding
What is the sound of no relays clicking? I tried some unguided tracking tonight and captured the data so I could see what’s up with my mount. I had to find a […]
Focuser / Maintenance / Observing Reports
OAG installed
Tonight was cloudy, but the clouds were high and thin, transparent enough to see Orion, The Dogs, Moon, Mars, and that’s about it. So, I spent some time doing maintenance. I swapped […]
Astro knowledge / General / Maintenance / Optics
Guiding — um, oops?
After speaking with Art tonight about my guiding workflow, it seems that I have been doing things… in a manner which would probably give me problems if I tried to do longish […]
Readying myself for sunset
I had a bunch of stuff on my TODO list after last night. So I took care of some of it while the sun was up today. I recharged the deep-cycle battery. […]
ATM / Electronics / Focuser / Gear / General / Maintenance / Observing Reports / Optics / Techniques / Technology
Murphy was an optimist.
Clear Sky Clock said it would be cloudy all night, so of course it stayed 90% clear until about midnight, when it socked in. But I’m getting ahead of myself… I decided […]
Astro knowledge / Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
Veronica's Last Stand — the final straw
In a last-ditch effort to make Veronica work with the mount, and since it’s Friday night, I decided to really tweak the scope before starting up, then do a series of “test” […]
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
Veronica's Last Stand — playing with exposure length
I only have a few more things I can try before I have to give up on Veronica as an imaging scope on The Lemon-i. Tonight, I added a 2.8x “Klee” Barlow […]
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.