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All Blog Posts (157)

Deep Sky instruments RC 14 inch

http://deepskyinstruments.com/rc14c.htm

This is a very nice OTA. Secondary mirror is the focuser, that is very nice. And it has heaters controlled by PC plus coolers. Wonder how real that spot diagram is, CDK might not agree, but I like this design better than any design that needs a focuser in the OTA. Eliminate flexure to be sure. Love this scope, eyeing a custom 16 inch version of it, but don't have the money, shocking!! :)

Added by Charles Dunlop on March 4, 2012 at 5:57pm — No Comments

Fog

Got two pretty good shots, mount is definitely tracking, REALLY tracking. Shooting at F10 on an 11 inch Edge HD SCT. Forecast to have clearest skies ever for a few days. So last night I didn't go out with the boys in liue of telescope time, and what happens? Fog. Thick gnarly fog that kept me out for six months last year. Unreal if I finally, after a year of tribulation with the CGE pro, finally come out of the woods and am in fact tracking like a stud, and all of a sudden boom, shut down…

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Added by Charles Dunlop on February 24, 2012 at 8:55am — 1 Comment

AT 12" RC

Anyone think this is a decent optical tube? Compared to planewave DCKs or AG optical, or deep sky instruments that all go for much more money, just over double at the same size, i'm interestd to know why and if this scope doesn't have the manufacturing quality. It's made by Guan Sheng Optical Co., Ltd in Taiwan. Thoughts anyone?

Added by Charles Dunlop on February 19, 2012 at 3:04pm — 8 Comments

stable setups

Dave made a comment about how when you change out toys, the scope always seems to have an issue. Boy we all know this is true. It always seems like your best shot is when you're stable with a particular configuration for a few sessions to where it's becoming routine. I've gotten so many toys and changed up so much in the last period here, that now I'm really sort of focused on stablizing the setup. I do not want to move or change anything for a bit, and actually get some nice…

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Added by Charles Dunlop on February 13, 2012 at 2:12pm — 9 Comments

selenology today 27

selenology today 27 and preceding issue on line with three articles,

webpagehttp://digilander.libero.it/glrgroup/

Thanks for your attention
Raffaello Lena

Added by raf lena on February 12, 2012 at 11:28am — 1 Comment

Paramount MX, or ME

Anyone heard anything about the paramount MX? We all know the ME is awesome, but the MX was launched and I haven't heard squat about it.

Added by Charles Dunlop on January 20, 2012 at 9:30am — 9 Comments

Astrogab

I'm not planning to ever bail on astrogab. It's not expensive to maintain, and I've learned so much from this site and am not done learning. No way am I leaving astrogab despite rumors.

Added by Charles Dunlop on December 6, 2011 at 9:33am — 22 Comments

Century (Generation) Spacecraft

Hi all,



Two questions.



Read this:



http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44780898/ns/technology_and_science-space/



Question one: If this expedition was going to happen, and they came knocking on your door right now with your ticket, would you go?



Question two: Would you change your answer if you were in the prime of your life and had no… Continue

Added by Trevor Woodrow on October 5, 2011 at 11:00pm — 12 Comments

Homemade Bahtinov Masks

Thought I would share this.

You can generate a Bahtinov mask of your choice and have it printed onto a transparency.
Attach it to a ring the size of your scope and you are ready to go. No cutting, no fussing. Just focus right through it. Works great. Made one for my 72mm at a cost of about 4 dollars.

Very easy and you can save a ton of cash!

Added by Mark Roberts on October 4, 2011 at 1:36pm — 6 Comments

Philip's Astro Art

Hi Everyone,



Some of you know me on Astrogab as Philip A Cruden and may be familiar with some of my astrophtography. In professional life I am a Production Designer and Art Director in the animation Feature Film and TV Industry. Some of the films I have designed include ANASTASIA, TITAN AE, ICE AGE and BARNYARD THE ORIGINAL PARTY ANIMALS and I have worked on such TV hits as… Continue

Added by Philip's Astro Art on September 30, 2011 at 12:04pm — 2 Comments

Orion is having a crazy sale and competition

Hi All,

Let me begin by saying I HATE Orion Telescopes. However....they are having a pretty cool astroimaging sale and having an astroimaging contest. Check it out! Deadline for the contest is 9/15 and you need to have shot the image with either an Orion scope or ccd. Sorry guys, mounts don't count or I would enter. I am letting you all know because I would think it would be great if one of us win the competition!

Just a heads up, Good luck!

t

Added by Trevor Woodrow on August 28, 2011 at 2:40am — 8 Comments

Newer Guide Train

Well I played around with the guide scope model long enough. The WO Petzval is a nice little scope, but I couldn't get the flexion out of the system (in time). I started playing with using a third guide ring on the focuser and had some success (this will work), but not until I had way too many frustrations.



I searched and searched for a good Off Axis Guider (OAG) and never found a good deal on one, plus I was scratching my head trying to figure out spacing and back focus, ad… Continue

Added by Bill R. on August 18, 2011 at 12:59pm — 1 Comment

New Toys

Well, after what seemed like an eternity, I finally have some semblance of a decent AP rig put together...



I nearly ran over about 5 people trying to get home from work to see my new camera and filters that arrived today. The retailer I picked the new gear up from informed me that he'd screwed the order up a little; he'd put aside 5nm filters instead of 3nm filters which I'd ordered, the latter being out of stock. Disappointing, but he assures me they'll arrive next week and…

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Added by Conor on August 10, 2011 at 12:36pm — 6 Comments

Chosen For The Astronomy POD

Tonight I went to check the Astronomy POD page to check out the latest images posted and to my surprise todays shot was my own. Woot!

 

I really like the Astronomy POD images because they seem more attainable to me. The NASA APOD shots are stunning, but it's pretty rare to see a DSLR shot posted there. There certainly are some, but not many.

 

There was a particularly cool thing this time where I happened to have 2 chosen shots within 20 days of each other putting…

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Added by Neil Heacock on July 8, 2011 at 3:53am — 6 Comments

Countdown to last Space Shuttle launch

I just want to share this website with all of you space enthusiast! The images he has captured of past launches are stunning. I hope you all enjoy! Feel free to write about any experiences you may have had? Have you seen a launch or been to KSC?

Added by Steve Coates on July 2, 2011 at 10:00am — 1 Comment

listen on songtrellis.com to my last song

listen on songtrellis.com ,composer Milou Pulinx ,to my last composition Ekam ,love at first sight

Added by Emile.M. Pulinx, MD on June 25, 2011 at 11:28am — No Comments

Update on Differential Flexure

Not satisfied with the results of my previous testing, I decided to try again. This time I used a technique that is directly applicable to imaging rather than a theoretical measurement of worst-case flexure. What I did was to simply capture 30 images at 2 minute intervals while guiding, then measure the position of a star in each frame to see how it varies in RA and DEC over the hour. Obviously, there is some "noise" in the measurements and I didn't bother trying to filter that out (such as… Continue

Added by Greg Marshall on June 16, 2011 at 12:25pm — No Comments

Clear Skies

Apparently i've got clear skies all next week. Hopefully it materializes my setup works great and nail a shot per night, that would be really nice.

Added by Charles Dunlop on June 10, 2011 at 10:44am — No Comments

Full Time Astronomy?

Got laid off today! It was only part time work and the lay off was expected - not a big deal. So now I can spend all (well, most) of my time on astronomy.

Coincidentally, my previous employer, Xerox, announced today that they are outsourcing most engineering to India. It has been my opinion for some time now that the company was run by fools. This is proof positive.

Added by Greg Marshall on June 8, 2011 at 8:00pm — 3 Comments

Flexure and Field Flatness Tests

Neil gave me the idea of testing to see how much differential flexure I have in my side-by-side setup and I got around to doing that last night when we had partly cloudy skies such that I didn't want to try real imaging, not knowing how long it would last. My AT111EDT (with QSI 583 camera) and Orion ST80 (with Meade DSI camera) are mounted on a 3/8" aluminum plate, about 8" apart. Recently I also added an aluminum bar across the tops of the rings to couple the 2 scopes there in addition to the… Continue

Added by Greg Marshall on June 5, 2011 at 10:00pm — 1 Comment

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