TAG Trixie
General / Maintenance / Observing Reports
Another respite between stormfronts
The skies cleared again tonight! Second time in a week, with about 2 weeks of continual rain going on around them. Interesting. The moon is one day before 1st quarter, so I […]
ATM / General / Maintenance / Observing Reports
The Astronomy Gods cut me a break
I can’t believe it. You would not believe how hard it was raining today. There was standing water on some of the stuff inside the observatory where it blew in the roller […]
Trixie goes Steampunk
I decided to use large turnbuckles to stiffen Trixie’s lower half, between the bottom and middle rings. The mod turned out OK; I still have to worry about over-tightening things. But Trixie […]
Trixie rebuild – parts on-hand
I decided to move forward with the strings concept before trying to do a total rework. Things ended up being kind of expensive anyway; the parts to finish off the strings turned […]
Trixie rebuild – how to stop flexure
in Albert Highe’s article, he mentions that the reason the 3 tube straight truss design works for him is because it is a Dob. For an Equatorially mounted scope, I think I […]
Re: Future Design for the Losmandy
Art Morton wrote: LiteScope Very pretty. Some of these designs only work if you’re in alt-az, where you can control which direction things are going to rotate. I need to get Trixie […]
Re: M31
Art Morton wrote: > I will try that or pull that 80mm out of the box again. I do like > this image size and resolution however. I like the resolution, too. […]
Trixie testing
I got some photons on the mirror over the weekend. Still test shots. I think the new shrouds are working OK. It now complains that the pointing is off again (I shouldn’t […]
Straight-Truss scopes
Box Kite Al Highe Also check out Plettstone, who make Al Highe’s scopes.
Telescope Balance calculations
This is the balance calculation spreadsheet that I used when designing Trixie. It’s not the best-documented. I was transferring all the components from a paper napkin into the spreadsheet. The calculation (weight […]
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.