TAG Widefield
Long Exposure Photography / Techniques
Star Trails over Ad Astra Observatory
It’s been awhile since I did any star trails photography. It’s pretty simple — camera, tripod, point it at your target, and let it rip. I figured this would make a handsome […]
Long Exposure Photography / Techniques
Coyote Lake widefields
It is hard to describe how much fun I had shooting widefields from the tripod. A lot of the shots came up out of focus, and several more came up with star […]
Long Exposure Photography / Observing Reports
In search of more Cygnus nebulosity — Sh2-115, 116, and 112
It was cloudy on Saturday night, but Sunday night I decided to try out another run at the Cygnus Milky Way. I have a decently large target list of nebulae that are […]
Going off-script: More Ha in Cygnus
I am attempting to work my way around Cygnus, and intended to shoot the region near Sadr (IC1318). This region is large enough that even Pumpkin can only capture a piece of […]
Cutting swathes through the summer Milky Way
The shutter was open for about 4 hours total last night. These have had darks and bias subtracted but no flats (my flat box is dead). This is all through the Ha […]
Long Exposure Photography / Observing Reports
Re: Grand Canyon by moonlight
Those are awesome! There is a light near the upper right-hand corner (about 2 x 1 in) that shows. Any idea? a distant town? Amazing how bright it looks under a full […]
Long Exposure Photography / Observing Reports
Thanksgiving in the Grand Canyon
Not strictly qualifying as “astronomy” photos, these are a set of photos that I shot while on a trip to the Grand Canyon over Thanksgiving 2007. It was a full moon night, […]
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography / Observing Reports
Re: Ad Astra Observatory photo updates
Hi Jimbo, I liked the dark horse image in particular. Looks good. Alex On Aug 7, 2006, at 11:58 AM, Jimbo S. Harris wrote: > Hi all, > > Now that the […]
The Dark Horse – Milky Way near Sagittarius
A widefield shot towards the center of the Milky Way galaxy in the vicinity of Scorpius and Sagittarius. Note the “Dark Horse” Nebula, an extensive dust cloud that resembles a rearing horse. […]
Gear / Long Exposure Photography
The Great Rift – Milky Way from Cygnus to Aquila
A widefield shot of the Milky Way galaxy in the vicinity of Cygnus the Swan and Aquila the Eagle. Note the “Great Rift”, an dust cloud that blots out most of the […]
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.