TAG DSC
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
NGC 4725 and friends
Here’s last night’s result. Not too bad. I really like NGC 4725. It’s one of those galaxies that I never hear about, but it’s very photogenic and has a really cute companion […]
Digital Setting Circles
The G-11 does not have a GOTO computer like the CG-5GT had, so I started out using manual setting circles. Despite complaints that you’ll hear about setting circles, this is actually quite […]
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
M33, The Triangulum Galaxy
A first shot at the Autumn galaxies. I was having a lot of trouble with astronomy lat night for some reason; My focuser motor is on the blink, I got my T-ring […]
Astro knowledge / Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
NGC 4725, Spiral Galaxy in Coma Berenices
Trying to round out the set of the largest galaxies visible from this latitude. This is another galaxy that I would not have known about if not for “The List” (see M106 […]
Uncategorized
dsc equations
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~zs3t-tk/aim/aim.htm Hi all, My latest project is to see if I can build myself a set of Digital Setting Circles for my new astronomy mount, which does not have an onboard pointing […]
Uncategorized
more dsc faq
http://www.fer3.com/arc/m2.aspx?y=200210&i=007828 http://www.jgiesen.de/astro/solarday.htm http://www.prairienet.org/cuas/faqcalc.html http://star-www.st-and.ac.uk/~fv/webnotes/index.html http://www.willbell.com/math/mc1.htm
Uncategorized
dsc diy
http://www.nova-astro.com/ http://digicircles.eksfiles.net/dsc.html http://www.fourmilab.ch/homeplanet/homeplanet.html
New mount = Happy
After a couple of days of being “closed for renovation”, the ad Astra Observatory at Newark, CA is back in business with the new Losmandy G-11 mount. I had to modify the […]
targets
galaxies: ngc7331 M74 (too low?) NGC253 (too low?) (possibly too small, below): IC342? NGC772 NGC2403 NGC2841 NGC5905/5908 NGC5907 NGC5963/5965 Stephan’s Quintet NGC7814 nebulae: ngc281 ngc6334/6357 (just west of M6) IC1805 IC1848 IC1396 […]
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.