Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography / Telescope

Beauty the 12″ f/4 Newtonian Astrograph — First light

Tagged , , Leave a Comment on Beauty the 12″ f/4 Newtonian Astrograph — First light

After spending some of my bonus last year on a new telescope, I spent a long (long) time getting the observatory ready to run with the new rig. There’s a story here, […]

READ MORE

Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography

M106, Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major

Tagged , , 2 Comments on M106, Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major

I got Cassie back on the mount, and now my target selection has totally changed. All the tolerances need to be a little tighter with the longer focal length, so I decided […]

READ MORE

Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography

NGC1499, The California Nebula

Tagged , , Leave a Comment on NGC1499, The California Nebula

I always have a hard time getting around to nebulae in Perseus, Casseiopeia, &c. I don’t know why — maybe I’m still chasing the Summer constellations, or maybe that’s when it starts […]

READ MORE

Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography

NGC2174, The Monkey Head Nebula

Tagged , , Leave a Comment on NGC2174, The Monkey Head Nebula

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 […]

READ MORE

Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography

IC2177, The Seagull Nebula

Tagged , , Leave a Comment on IC2177, The Seagull Nebula

Here’s a first! There are lots and lots of winter nebulae, but somehow I have never spent any time digging deep into Monoceros (the Unicorn!). With halfway-decent shots of The Pleiades and […]

READ MORE

Astro knowledge / Deep Sky / General / Long Exposure Photography

Planes. Grr.

Tagged , , Leave a Comment on Planes. Grr.

For how big the sky is, and how small an area I am capturing, I sure do catch a lot of airplanes. The astronomy gods chuckle.

READ MORE

Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography

IC405 and IC410, Nebulae in Auriga

Tagged , , Leave a Comment on IC405 and IC410, Nebulae in Auriga

Grand tour of the winter nebulae netted me another first, a pretty pair in Auriga, the Charioteer. I should probably make a pass through with Cassie someday, to get a little more […]

READ MORE

Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography

NGC2244, The Rosette Nebula

Tagged , , 3 Comments on NGC2244, The Rosette Nebula

With the dome control back up and running, I set up for shooting, and The Rosette Nebula is turning into an old favorite. I didn’t want to stay up too late, so […]

READ MORE

Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography

M45, The Pleiades in Taurus

Tagged , , Leave a Comment on M45, The Pleiades in Taurus

Well, it’s been awhile since I’ve been out in the observatory. I pulled the camera in favor of an eyepiece at one point, and just never really got back to putting the […]

READ MORE

Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography

NGC 7000, The North America Nebula

Tagged , , Leave a Comment on NGC 7000, The North America Nebula

Last night, I mistakenly ran without a light-pollution filter, and that really threw off the white balance. With a quick run back through focusing &c, the trusty (and only somewhat dusty) IDAS-LPS […]

READ MORE

Techniques

Polar Alignment Calculations

Tagged Leave a Comment on 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 […]

READ MORE

Gear / Observatory / Telescope

Special Guest Star takes the mount at Hilltop O

Tagged , Leave a Comment on 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 […]

READ MORE

General / Maintenance / Observatory

Dome shutter is motorized again!

Tagged Leave a Comment on 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 […]

READ MORE

ATM

Trixie 2017 – tube mods

Tagged Leave a Comment on 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 […]

READ MORE