TAG Target Selection
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
Another attempt at NGC7000
This time I tried 20m subframes (polar alignment not good enough — much field rotation) and settled on 10m subframes (lots of detail but no star trails). I forgot to change the […]
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
300D first light, Ha filter first light, and an old nemesis
Since my Gemini mount is up in WA and my Nikon died, I had a lot of new stuff going on. In particular, I tried out the Canon 300D for the first […]
DSLR Narrowband Imaging – trying again
I had nothing but trouble the last time I tried H-alpha imaging with the D70. I bought a 2” Baader filter, and decided that the Astronomik filter slide system would be perfect. […]
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
NGC 4725 and friends
Here’s last night’s result. Not too bad. I really like NGC 4725. It’s one of those galaxies that I never hear about, but it’s very photogenic and has a really cute companion […]
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
Go south, young man
I have had some kind of mental block about shooting the galaxies in Leo and Virgo. So when I got a clear night, I decided to try my luck. NGC 2903 sits […]
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 […]
Uncategorized
Re: Yes you are crazy
Art Morton wrote: > I will be getting out again. 2 weeks until the next astrophotography moon… > I presume that you have a Focal Reducer for 9.25 and it would be […]
Re: C9.25 first light
I was a little worried about the weight of the new (and larger-aperture) OTA, but since it was a first light, I was running in minimal load mode; just the OTA, a […]
Astro knowledge / Focuser / Optics
Re: visual astronomy
It’s so cute when I use my a highly-tuned astrograph with an eyepiece of all things. Actually, I’m just lazy. Because I haven’t really figured out the whole motor focuser thing, I […]
Re: Last night Raw
Art Morton wrote: >> It’s continually amazing to me how close our FOVs are. That’s totally random, given that we’re using different size chips and different focal length scopes. Or maybe it’s […]
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.