TAG FocusMax
Gear / Mount / Observatory / Technology
Lessons learned
Well, I had 2 clear nights over the weekend, and came up empty for a new photo — I got lots of data last night, but the object is big and dim, […]
Focuser / Gear / Maintenance / Mount
Another layer of the onion
I spent some time in the fasteners aisle at McLendon’s Hardware on Saturday morning, looking for longer collimation bolts for Trixie. The mirror cell has nice, easy-to-source hardware (1/4-20 countersunk for the […]
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 […]
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
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 […]
Rig maintenance – moving cameras around
I had moved the ST-4 to the main scope to do some periodic error testing on the mount at higher magnification. This helped me to see the errors more clearly, but also […]
Observing Reports / Solar System Photography
A rare clear night
This is the second clear night I’ve had since Valentine’s Day. It was clear all night, but obviously it wasn’t really a night for deep sky photography. 🙂 I used the time […]
focuser settings
1) rack focuser all the way in, set this to 30,000 (pos1) 2) drive focuser out until it stops, see what FM says the focuser pos is (pos2) 3) set one end […]
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 […]
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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.