TAG Galaxy
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
M106, Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major
Another first-light image from the Gemini. I was having fun with the GOTO on the Gemini. It was bringing up targets really easily. I decided to try this big galaxy, to see […]
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography / Observing Reports
M51, The Whirlpool Galaxy in Ursa Major
First try at the spring galaxies this year. This was a “gimme” image — the stupid sky wouldn’t cloud over and it was 1:30am, so I said “why not?” and fired off […]
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
M31, The Great Andromeda Galaxy
At long last, I have a scope that can give me a shot at M31 again. This is a “test shot” from the first light of Pumpkin, the new 66mm refractor. There […]
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 […]
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
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 […]
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 […]
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
M106, Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major
Chasing all of the Spring Galaxies before they get away for another year. Who knew M106 had so many friends? IDs of the dimmer galaxies TBD. 90 minutes of exposure time brings […]
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
M64, The Black Eye Galaxy in Canes Venatici
The galaxies around Ursa Major have been providing me with lots of opportunities to work on shooting stuff near the limit of the image scale I can really produce with Veronica and […]
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
M101, The Pinwheel Galaxy in Ursa Major
I attempted another 1-hour integration of M101. I think this really needs more integration time. I might be able to combine the hour from February and the hour from May into one […]
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.