TAG Autoguider
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
M31, The Great Andromeda Galaxy
Veronica’s FOV is too tight to get all of Andromeda, so this is just a shot of the central region of the galaxy. M32 and M110 were hugging the edges of the […]
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
M27, The Dumbbell Nebula in Vulpecula
I tried a longer integration time on M27 (2 hours’ worth of 3-minute images vs. an hour of 2 min)… I think that I’ve reached the limit of what I can achieve […]
Deep Sky / Focuser / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
M8, The Lagoon Nebula in Sagittarius
An hour of M8 with Veronica, G11, motor focuser. I could use some more detail of the outlying areas (there are some nice dust globs out there), but when I tried to […]
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
M17, The Swan Nebula in Serpens
I tried 2 minute subframes, but that blew out the red channel, so I switched to 1 minute.
Astro knowledge / Deep Sky / Focuser / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
M20, The Trifid Nebula in Sagittarius
First attempt at the Trifid with Veronica. The G11 and the motor focuser are really helping. It’s so low that I had to wait for it to rise above the doorway of […]
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography / Maintenance
NGC 6960, The Witch’s Broom, part of the Veil Nebula in Cygnus
Another attempt at “The Witch’s Broom” portion of the Veil. Despite this being almost 3 hours of integration time, This still came out pretty dim and noisy. Maybe 3-minute subframes would be […]
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
M94, Spiral Galaxy in Canes Venatici
Trying to round out the largest Messier galaxies. M94 has a surprisingly large footprint for a galaxy that doesn’t otherwise get much press. Very bright core, *very* dim outer arms. Despite 2 […]
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
M16, The Eagle Nebula in Serpens
I was able to get an hour of M16 tonight, and it was earlier in the night, so the dew/temperature (causing focus shift) wasn’t as bad. It’s still quite a strange object […]
Astro knowledge / Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
M27, The Dumbbell Nebula in Vulpecula
Another attempt. I’m getting the idea that longer integration times lead to better detail and noise reduction…
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
M16, The Eagle Nebula in Serpens
Up way too late in early June, decided to try out some of the summer nebulae. Only picked up 11 frames before loss of guidestar behind the roof of the observatory. Not […]
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.