All Blog Posts (157)

http://mars-one.com/

Astro photographers all know that perfect focusing is both essential and difficult. A motorized focuser is a big help because it allows finer control while avoiding the vibrations typically induced by turning a focus knob by hand. However, simple DC motor systems cannot provide enough precision and absolute positioning systems using stepper or servo motors are usually very…

Hi Trevor,

Yep, still around. Got an 11" celestron and cgem mount to go with the EQ-G and 70 and 127 mm scopes. Also a guider from kw telescopes in Kitchener-Waterloo that they make themselves using a small finder scope and qhy5 cmos camera. Love it. Spending about 4-5 hours per subject, ending with 2-3 working 'finals' then layering in photoshop elements. Seems to make a huge improvement in my final images

Dave

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/05/16/10-things-exome-sequencing-cant-do-but-why-its-still-powerful/

Not too big a deal, but I'm pretty stoked. Irony is, I share a step mother with David Goldstein but I've only met him once or twice. funny.

I can't hardly believe we are getting back to back nights. It's been less then a year, but it seems like forever since I've been able to enjoy astronomy multiple nights in a row all night long without fog or clouds or haze or something ruining the pleasure of the evening.

After a solid 8 months of horrible skies (and an occasional decent sky of which I was working or some such thing) I finally got out to test my gear changes and I'm happy to say that I'm very pleased with the results.




The Atlas w/Vixen ED03s and ZenithStar 66 Guider

The Atlas was trouble from the beginning. I didn't expect that. I had (and still have to a degree) issues with the altitude adjustment. It's tight, it slips, the tongue inside is…

As promised, here are the results of testing my ELF panel, an electroluminescent panel designed specifically for making "lens cap" type flats. That is, by placing the panel directly in front of the telescope. This technique does not provide the highest possible accuracy, but when done properly it works quite well and has the distinct advantage that you can do it in the middle of a shooting session without bothering anyone. ELF is designed to fit snugly around the end of your scope so that…

I was out for six months with nonstop fog, and then Trevor got it with bad weather for like 5 months, and now, just when my new observatory, solid pier, paramount, off axis guiding with rotator... and now, fog rolls in three days now. It's thick fog that never leaves. It's going to rain on thursday that'll clear it out, but it'll just build back up again.

This is caused primarily by La Nina, or colder than normal ocean temperatures. They say La Nina lasts two years on average, this…

So I'm thinking of starting my own website to upload photos and post a thought or two and looking out there in the virtual world there appears to be plenty of options.

What I think is important:

Right Click protection, Watermarks.

Being able to have my own style and Logo.

Image size is not restricted or "resized" on upload.

Multiple Image file types (png, tiff, FITS, RAW if possible)

Large amount of storage.

Private folders as well as public. Password…

Since I retired from a career in designing electronic products (mostly related to imaging), I've often had to rely on the skills learned over the years (and learn some new ones) to solve problems that came up in astronomy. Thinking that my friends in astronomy and astrophotography might benefit from the solutions I developed (and having little else to do), I decided to make some of these solutions available as real products. My intent is not to make a big business from this and it's not…

I saw the arduino boards sitting on the shelves at Radioshack and I figured I would try to make a focuser controller for the motor focuser I bought a few weeks back. This is mainly due to that the 100ft wires were too flimsy to last and secondly that I can then precisely control the focus, even without a focuser program.

The core of the focuser is an arduino…

Got the deck taken out, and my buddy and his small crew put in an 18 inch round pier with a T base 5 feet deep. The dirt in my hill is super strong and solid, and I'm guessing that pier base isn't moving at all if much at all. Just levelled the J bolts (except he used screws with flat square 3 inch plates on the end. It'll be solid. So, that part is done. Monday they install the actual deck, should be done my tuesday. Wed. my observatory shows up. Can't wait.

Tonight will be my last night shooting with my observatory. Goodbye, or rather good riddance. Since I've had a dome my productivity per night has gone down a lot, driving me nuts. Firstly, had a six month fog bank so no telescoping, then when I got back on my CGE pro was acting funny and not tracking in DEC. That drove me nuts for months. Things are better now, Paramount ME is tracking like a champ, and thus everything is working again.

So here's what the new observatory will…

Just took delivery of the new camera setup:

http://www.silvren.com/blog/?p=927

I'll be attaching this rig to my existing ATFF field flattener. The spacing works out perfectly (~56mm). Should slide into my existing MoonLite focusers nicely. Now I just need the Paramount MX and Rob Miller tripod to show up!

Today my automated technical innovations PD10 shipped, be here next week. From now until then mostly cloudy nights, so I'll take the setup down when convenient in next two days, and rip out my deck, and put in a better more stable pier. Will drill a new hole, square it, cement it up and attach an appropriate bisque manufactured pier. Pretty stoked to move on this.

Here is my new urinal, about 20 feet from my observatory. :) Urinals are nice to be sure, and I went roman emporer style…

http://www.optcorp.com/product.aspx?pid=319-320-1542-15881

What you guys think of this? I could scoop it up right now, with a rotator and be super ready to roll and guide off axis. Thoguhts?

i'm engaged!!!! First time for me. Her little sister and mine are best friends, she grew up about five blocks from me but I never met her. She graduated from Berkeley and lived in san Fransisco for six years after and just returned to Laguna, and we met and boom, never been more sure of anything in my life.…

I recently purchased a JMI motorized crayford focuser and a C5 to shoot with but noticed an interesting thing about the focuser's connection cable and my guide scope cable. They were 6 pin RJ11 patch cables. In a desire to create an extension cable for the focuser I got RJ11 crimping tools and made a new cable out of Cat5 cable. Turns out that the focuser cable could be 100 ft long and still work.

Then I noticed that my Celestron hand controller had the same 6 pin RJ11 port. I thus…