Category Archives: Astrophotography and Astronomy

I’ve been asked a couple times what I do for power in the field. Here it is. 2 x Everstart 24DC-6 flooded lead-acid hybrid deep cycle/marine batteries wired in parallel. 75AH each, 150AH in total 0 gauge cable with nice … Continue reading →

I compiled the code found at http://www.astrometry.net/use.html on my Fedora 11 box (a VM really, hosted by VPSLink) in Boston. A couple edits to a couple makefiles, a bunch of yum installs for devel RPMs and I was off. I … Continue reading →

On 11/22/2010 I ordered one of these bad boys: http://www.wickedlasers.com/lasers/E2_Series-104-63.html It *just* arrived. Better late than never I guess. But this thing is powerful, whoa. Here’s a pic of it:

I was mostly heading out, not expecting it to be as clear as it ended up being, to do some fine collimation work and focus scripting in Maxim. However, it just was so clear that I figured I’d do a … Continue reading →

I really really really like the MoonLite’s, so I thought I’d put up a blog entry on using the CS Model with my AT8RC scope. First, I zero’d my drawtube. I have the 1.5″ one, which at 6135 steps/inch comes … Continue reading →

Here I am in the middle of a field in Middleburg, VA. Super pretty area. Quiet, peaceful, no one bugs me, and I even get pretty decent 3G reception so I can stay on the ‘net via 3G card in … Continue reading →

CCDInspector screenshot of the field of the Orion triplet tonight with the Astro-Tech FF. Again, not perfect, but not way off either, so I didn’t mess with it. Here’s a screenshot of Maxim and guiding. Gusts to 30MPH, this was … Continue reading →

Here’s the AT8RC field of view with CCDInspector tonight. Not bad, I didn’t feel like messing with the position of the camera/FF in the focuser drawtube so I left it alone. Here’s a screenshot of FocusMax, Maxim doing the guiding … Continue reading →

Here’s the new Orion ED80T CF triplet refractor with the dew-shield fully extended, and the MoonLite CF focuser attached. The stock focuser on this scope is quite good, and sturdy, but I’ve become a fan of MoonLite’s stuff, so I … Continue reading →