Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography

NGC2174, The Monkey Head Nebula

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I think I’ve finally gotten a decent shot of this object. What with one thing and another, I always seem to miss being able to give this guy the full treatment. I […]

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Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography

NGC 2174, The Monkey Head Nebula

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Some objects get all the press. When you are watching The Discovery Channel, and they put up a pretty nebula photo, it’s going to be Orion or sometimes The Eagle. There are […]

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Techniques

Polar Alignment Calculations

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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 […]

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Gear / Observatory / Telescope

Special Guest Star takes the mount at Hilltop O

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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 […]

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General / Maintenance / Observatory

Dome shutter is motorized again!

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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 […]

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ATM

Trixie 2017 – tube mods

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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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