TAG Pumpkin
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
NGC 2174, The Monkey Head Nebula
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 […]
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography / Mount
Yet Another Test Shot of M42
This was from the final day of shooting before I figured out the configuration for the mount setup (first, connect as LX-200 and set the serial port with arrow keys, not the […]
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
Mojo Risin’…but I didn’t Do anything!?
I would like to announce that, somehow, out of the blue (so to speak), my astrophotography mojo has returned. Let me ‘splain. When shooting dim astronomical objects, the more photons you collect, […]
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
IC1848, The Soul Nebula
I shot this on the second night of GSSP 2010. This is 2h total exposure, six 20m subframes, shot with Pumpkin/350D.
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
M33, The Great Triangulum Galaxy
I shot this on the second night of GSSP 2010. This is 1h total exposure, three 20m subframes, shot with Pumpkin/350D.
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
The Veil Nebula in Cygnus
I shot this on the second night of GSSP 2010. This is 1h total exposure, three 20m subframes, shot with Pumpkin/350D.
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
Rho Ophiucus region
I shot this on the second night of GSSP 2010. This is 1h total exposure, three 20m subframes, shot with Pumpkin/350D.
GSSP Night 2
With no polar alignment or setup required this evening, this was my first “full” night with Pumpkin. I started around dusk with some exposure bracketing on Rho Ophiucus, a nebular area of […]
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
IC1805, The Heart Nebula in Casseiopeia
I shot this on the first night of GSSP 2010. This is 1h 20m total exposure, four 20m subframes, shot with Pumpkin/350D. I lost one frame to sunrise and one to a […]
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
M31, The Great Andromeda Galaxy
This was the first image I shot while at The Golden State Star Party (GSSP) 2010. This is 40m total exposure, two 20m subframes, shot with Pumpkin and the 350D with no […]
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.