Jump to content

Banner.jpg.b83b14cd4142fe10848741bb2a14c66b.jpg

Blogs

Featured Entries

Astro Projects

Ha Solar Imaging and Observing Rig

I have just acquired an Ha Solar telescope consisting of an Antares 127mm 1200mm FL telescope with Coronado PST.  I plan to set this up for both observing and imaging.  I have yet to decide on the final mounting for this but will start with a Skywatcher Pillar Mount with an NEQ6 SynScan Pro mount for testing as I want to reserve my EQ8 and main observatory for DSO imaging.
Gina

Gina

76
Clocks made with 3D Printed Parts

Perpetual Calendar

This is basically a mechanical perpetual calendar with 3D printed plastic parts but whether I drive it from a clock with hands etc. or simply from a stepper motor remains to be decided.  The display consists of drums with numbers and letters stuck on.  Each drum is driven from specialised gears and levers.  The mechanism is designed to be visible and show the workings.
Gina

Gina

59
Clocks made with 3D Printed Parts

Longcase Pendulum Clock

Traditional longcase (grandfather) clock but using 3D printed gears etc.  Also transparent acrylic clockface and mechanism front and back plates to show all the works.  The case is made of wood and pretty much traditional shape.  In addition to the usual hour and minute hands and dial this clock will have a moon globe above the main clock face similar to my moon dial clock.  I may add a small seconds dial if this proves viable.  There will also be an auto-winding mechanism driven from a stepper
Gina

Gina

182
Clocks made with 3D Printed Parts

Moon Dial Clock

This clock runs off a stepper motor controlled by Arduino and Real time Clock module.  It is about 300mm square with analogue display of hours and minutes with a sweep seconds hand.  Atop the main clock face is a globe displaying the phase of the moon.  The clock face is of clear acrylic to show all the gears etc.  This clock is finished and has been running for several months.
Gina

Gina

13
A Range of DIY 3D Printers

"GinaRep Mini" 3D Printer

This is a 3D printer with a 200mm square print bed and probably around 250mm build height depending on how things work out.  It will use many of the parts from my "GinaRep Pilot" printer which has now served its purpose and needs upgrading/rebuilding.  The Pilot printer had a moving print bed for the Y axis whereas the Mini will use Core-XY and the print bed will move up/down to provide the Z axis.  This arrangements minimises the mass of moving parts in the XY plane where motion is fastest.
Gina

Gina

338
Gina

Test blog

I'm new to blogs - never used them before so I don't know what I'm doing   I'll just experiment and see what happens...
Gina

Gina

3
Blogstronomy

Finally got the new mount polar aligned!

Three months ago I remounted the EQ8 in the observatory after my friend Chris made me a pier extension to raise the mount 15 cm. Unfortunately, a combination of cloudy nights, holidays, it not getting dark until early in the morning, and my lovely wife being ill has meant that it took until tonight to get the EQ8 re-polar aligned. SharpCap's polar alignment tool makes this pretty easy.  I used my Lodestar x2 mounted on a 60 mm finder/guider. I'll aim to try to see if I can get th
michaelmorris

michaelmorris

1
Diary of an AstroNat

Star Diary-Pitfalls and Craters

It’s been a frustrating couple of weeks in the life of this (very) amateur astronomer. Of course, our old sparring partner the clouds have loomed large and thick, making viewing nights few and far between, and then, when a beautiful, visibility-for-miles kind of night did come about, Herschel said a firm ‘no.’ Try as I might, I could not get the power to turn on and stay on. I tried all the tricks in my arsenal, all the high tech stuff like swearing, switching it off and on again, swearing, chan
Astro-Nat

Astro-Nat

3
Diary of an AstroNat

Once in a full moon

There is something so beguiling about a full moon. An endless source of inspiration for gothic novelists everywhere, it has become synonymous with dark and mysterious happenings, and I have grown up enamoured with it’s beauty. A hazy evening provided the perfect opportunity to try to capture this sentiment. I can't wait to do some luna photography with Herschel, to really get in amongst the detail.
Astro-Nat

Astro-Nat

0
Diary of an AstroNat

Deep Sky Country

I have been blessed with that rarest of astronomical phenomenons these past two weeks-clear skies on nights when I can stay awake long enough to see something! Praise be! (Normal service has now resumed, I might add. As I type a thick layer of cloud has rolled across the entirety of the sky, and seems well and truly here for an overnight stay. Ho hum.) This past Saturday was, without doubt, the clearest sky I have seen since brining Herschel home, so I was pretty excited to get all the kit out a
Astro-Nat

Astro-Nat

6
Diary of an AstroNat

Lunar Exploration

I really love astronomy. I love nothing more than getting Herschel out and gazing at the universe until the wee small hours of the morning. Unfortunately, this is not helpful for maintaining a non-zombie like state during the daytime, which in turn leads to some tricky situations at work. This, combined with shockingly poor impulse control means that I have to implement a strict ‘no summer astronomy on a work night’ rule. This stands until the nights start closing in, or I can find a viable noct
Astro-Nat

Astro-Nat

0
Diary of an AstroNat

Astronomy is Social Pastime...Honest!

This Friday just gone, I hitched up my (entirely metaphorical) breeches and went to my first ever astronomy social meeting. Believe me, my very anxious brain tried every excuse in the book to talk me out of it, not limited to poor weather, Friday night fatigue and post meal bloat leaving me looking like a blimp, because a room full of new people is enough to render me a quivering wreck. I am not god at social stuff. I am very awkward, and really rather weird. People don’t tend to like me much on
Astro-Nat

Astro-Nat

0
"We are made of star stuff..."

Stargazing Session 002 - The Moon, half of Jupiter, no Saturn and CLOUDS.

3rd of July 2017 / 21h30 UTC+01:00 / Stargazing Conditions: 80%   After much reading and hyping myself so much, I was pretty stunned by the early notification on my phone that yesterday night could potentially be a good evening with good seeing. So I went home after work (with my phone still showing 80% of potential seeing), sat on my desk and prepared myself. I chose to watch the Moon, since I never really observed it, Jupiter, Saturn and search for the Sombrero Galaxy! Last week
AbeSapien

AbeSapien

0
Diary of an AstroNat

Viewing the Aurora Borealis

A couple of years ago, fed up with the daily grind and the men in our life (a frequent complaint, if I’m honest), my mum and I embarked on a girl’s trip. First, and anyone who has done this will know, came the trials and tribulations of choosing a destination. I am a bit of a space case, in that flying gives me the willies, and I will literally do anything to get out of it (truly, I once took a 9.5 hour bus journey at twice the cost to avoid a 1.5 hour flight), but thankfully, my mum loves nothi
Astro-Nat

Astro-Nat

2
Diary of an AstroNat

Astronomy on a Cloudy Night

Ask any astronomer what most frustrating thing about the pursuit is, and they will likely give you an answer along the lines of ‘cloud.’ I always quite liked clouds, especially those fluffy ones like on the title credits of the Simpsons (puts on Nerd Hat, straightens bow tie, clears throat “I think you’ll find those are called Cumulus clouds.” Takes off hat, gets back into cupboard under stairs) so, naturally, when I was warned about what a menace they were, I was sceptical. Let me tell you, a m
Astro-Nat

Astro-Nat

4
Diary of an AstroNat

The Scopening

It took a long time for me to get around to buying a telescope. Mainly because I am an incurable procrastinator, and just a bit miserly, so it took quite a while to quieten that old lady voice in my head telling me to save the money for a rainy day/something sensible/an impressively extensive booze cabinet (don’t ask, just a hankering I’ve always had.) But, on the dawn of my 26th birthday, I decided that my quarter life crisis was going to take the form of a tube with a bunch of mirrors in it. R
Astro-Nat

Astro-Nat

3
Diary of an AstroNat

Why Astronomy?

Hello, bienvenue and welcome to my little blog. Pull up a chair and make yourself at home. This is a place for observations, thoughts, musings and meanings probably loosely about astronomy, and the universe as a whole.  Firstly, a little bit of background about your writer. My name is Nat, I hail from lovely Kent in South East England (although soon to be plotting a new course due west to Dorset, if we ever manage to sell the house.) That was my first diversion. I think I will have to set u
Astro-Nat

Astro-Nat

0
"We are made of star stuff..."

Stargazing Session 001 - Saturn, Jupiter & the Milky Way

21 of June 2017 / 22h30 UTC+01:00 / Stargazing Conditions: 88%   So, I crammed all of my new acquired stuff together and went to the darkest place I could find near my town. It's a mere 5 minute drive from my home. As I set everything up, I tried to wait for 20-30 minutes to give the 'scope a chance to acclimatize but I really couldn't!     Jupiter I looked west south west to find Jupiter, pointed my finderscope at it and I was amazed by how clear the image fro
AbeSapien

AbeSapien

2
"We are made of star stuff..."

Prologue

Hello there,   I thought to myself that it would be great to write everything down I'm experiencing. From the very beginning, to the very end... So I chose to create this blog and use it as my small journal for personal observations, stargazing sessions, thoughts, reflections and what I recently learned. The greatest thing about this is, that it gives the opportunity to kick of many interesting discussions and I really can't wait to get started.   Around the end of winte
AbeSapien

AbeSapien

0
Blogstronomy

'Box of tricks' now installed and working.

The new combined 12v power hub/focus controller/USB hub is now installed on the mount head and all wired up.  I'm pleased as a really really pleased thing with it.   A billion thanks to my friend Dave Lloyd for all his help. The wiring to and from the mount now consists of just 4 cables. 12v power to the EQ8 USB to the EQ8 (EQDIR cable) 12v to the new power hub mounted on the mount head USB to the USB hub on the mount head   ount body and
michaelmorris

michaelmorris

0
Blogstronomy

New 'box of tricks' passes final testing

Before Christmas I decided to swap my perfectly good HitecAstro DC focus controller for an Ardunio-based system.  This would give me the flexibility to swap over to stepper motor-based focus motors at a later date.   I also wanted to bring my 12v power distribution up from the pier to sit in the middle of the dual mounting bar with my two refractors on one side and my SCT on the other.  This new arrangement should  lead to a significant reduction in the cable spaghetti I seem to constantly
michaelmorris

michaelmorris

2
Blogstronomy

EQ8 reinstalled with pier extension and extra counterweight

My new EQ8 mount is now back from my mate Chris.   Chris made a 15cm high pier extension to raise the whole kit and caboodle so that the observatory walls don't get in the way so much. Because the whole mount + cameras/filter wheel/focal reducer + counterweights weighs in at an estimated 82 kg, the pier extension is made from a solid block of 19cm diameter alumunium! With this concentration of mass, gravitational lensing will now swamp the punny effects of 9.25" mirror on the C9.25".
michaelmorris

michaelmorris

0
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.