Jump to content

Banner.jpg.b83b14cd4142fe10848741bb2a14c66b.jpg

Blogs

Featured Entries

Dream of clear skies

So what have I seen through my scopes since the last blog..............zip.........nothing.....nowt....zero The wonderful Cornish skies have been full of clouds, when I've been awake anyway, and now the howling gales prevent even standing my scopes upright even if the clouds clear. I had one glorious night of dark skies while on a work trip to central Germany, the sky lit up with stars, unfortunately my scopes were back in Blighty. Still just staring upwards can be so rewarding.....I highly
DavidJM

DavidJM

0

Connecting Gigabit Optical Cable - Pot to Router

Gigaclear have provided optical fibre cable to our village of Upottery in East Devon with full Fibre To The Property at 1Gb/s both download and upload.  We are the first village west of Bristol to be provided with this ultra-fast fibre broadband.  They provided connection to a pot (like a water D head) just outside my premises and I am arranging the fiber optical cable connection from there right into my house and to the router they have supplied.  This blog describes the process of digging
Gina

Gina

59

Corton Beach after Dark

Well last night, my partner's Aurora alarm app went off whilst we were having dinner - so pudding had to wait!  We loaded the tripod and camera bag into the family truckster and headed off to Corton Beach under cloudy but clearing skies.  Sadly, the street lights dont go out until midnight so Corton Beach, relatively close to our house, provides a dark site with a northerly view back over the cliffs largely missing the 'orange glow' that is Great Yarmouth. Whilst we were on the Beach the clouds
Hawksmoor

Hawksmoor

5

The Beginning

So I started staring at the sky many years ago, I lived in the Black Country (no not Birmingham but if you don't know where it is I'll live with it's close) where the night sky is frankly a permanent orange glow. I was fortunate to move to Cornwall a few years back and........wow, a whole new world came to life so I decided to buy my first telescope last January, a Heritage 100P; why that model I here you ask? Well firstly I lose interest, I have the attention span of a goldfish, I knew I would
DavidJM

DavidJM

0

Full Moon - early hours of the 6th of October 2017

I was so keen to use my new 'fixing plate' - piggy-backing my little 66 mm. Altair Astro ED refractor, that I defied the clouds, a rain shower and finally extremely bright moon light.  First of all and to test the seeing I tried capturing some video clips of Neptune using my 127mm.Meade Apo Refractor and a x3 Televue Barlow.  An absolute disaster ! - Neptune was quite low over my neighbour's roof and the tiny image was 'bobbling' about on thermally active localised air currents.  Further more an
Hawksmoor

Hawksmoor

7

Observations by John Herschel ( Sculptor Galaxy, NGC 253 )

Observations of the Sculptor Galaxy ( NGC 253 ) by William and John Herschel ......... Part 2.  Observations of "Caroline's Galaxy" by Sir John Herschel,  1830's Sir John Herschel, the only child of Mary Baldwin and Sir William Herschel, was born in 1792 when his father was in middle age and already famous as one of world's leading astronomers.  Having excelled in school, and no doubt inspired by his famous elders, John Herschel decided upon a career as a 'man of science' and
MikeODay

MikeODay

0

Observations by William Herschel ( Sculptor Galaxy - NGC 253 )

Observations of the Sculptor Galaxy ( NGC 253 ) by William and John Herschel The very large and bright 'nebula' discovered by Caroline Herschel in 1783, that we now know as the Sculptor Galaxy, was observed a number of times by her 'dear brother' Sir William Herschel and by her 'beloved nephew' Sir John Herschel, Baronet.  Some of these observations were recorded and published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society and, with respect to those by Sir John in South Africa, in t
MikeODay

MikeODay

0

Fixing a plate where the rain gets in and stopping my mind from wandering.

Bodging around with aluminium off-cuts in my shed I thought it would be useful if I could piggyback my cameras and smaller scopes on my 127mm. refractor mounted on a NEQ6 Pro. The weight would not exceed the maximum load and I already had an extension bar which would enable me to balance the different set ups.  I had some bits of aluminium in the shed and time on my hands. Now, I know the workmanship is bit ‘here and there’ but I do not possess a pillar drill or much patience. I do
Hawksmoor

Hawksmoor

0

Playing Old (and new) Vinyl Records

Decided to resurrect my vinyl record collection so bought a decent turntable, new loudspeakers etc.  This blog describes what I've bought and setting it up.
Gina

Gina

35

Discovery by Caroline Herschel - 1783 ( Sculptor Galaxy, NGC 253 )

The Discovery of the Sculptor Galaxy by Miss Caroline Herschel in 1783 On the 23rd of September 1783, sitting before her telescope in the field behind the house she shared with her brother William in Datchet near Slough in the south of England, Miss Caroline Herschel "swept" the sky searching for new comets and never before seen star clusters and nebulae.   On this occasion, way down in the sky, not far above the Southern horizon, Miss Herschel saw and noted down a very bright and large neb
MikeODay

MikeODay

4

Overview

This is my progress in buying, modifying and making 3D printers. Velleman kit UP Plus 2 - Proprietary 3D printer "GinaRep Pilot" created from the Velleman kit with variations and new parts "GinaRep Titan" - a larger printer with 300mm cube print capacity "GinaRep Giant" - larger still with over 400mm cube capacity "GinaRep Mini" - a replacement for the Pilot with improved accuracy and printing speed  
Gina

Gina

0

Widefield Single Imaging Rig

This is based on the ZWO ASI1600MM-Cool CMOS astro camera and vintage film SLR camera lenses.  In particular the Asahi Pentax Takumar, Super Takumar and Super Multi-Coated Takumar lenses.  I plan to use this rig for LRGB and where I have only one lens of a particular focal length for NB imaging.  Between these is the ZWO EFWmini filter wheel.
Gina

Gina

31

Cover Page

A blog by Mike O'Day ----------------- When I show my astrophotography images to my friends and family they invariably want to know what they are looking at.  This led me to wonder if there was a way I could display my images on a single page together with a few notes on the target object as well as few technical details of the capture for those who might be interested. What I came up with a "scrapbook" like page that combines all of these three elements in a single PDF sheet ( or jpeg
MikeODay

MikeODay

0

Oh no it isnt - Oh yes it is - Aurora Borealis - well is it?

You could have knocked me down with a feather, when at 1.00 am. yesterday my partner said "why dont we go down to the seafront and see if we can spot the Aurora".  So off we went in the family truckster with tripod and camera box in the back.  We were originally going to set up base camp at the UK's most easterly point but the lights from the Birdseye factory were a problem. We ended up on Corton Cliffs with a fine view North towards  Great Yarmouth and the offshore wind turbines. Well after an
Hawksmoor

Hawksmoor

5

Widefield Narrowband Dual Imaging Rig

This is a dual imaging rig using two ZWO ASI1600MM-Cool CMOS cameras and matching vintage SLR film camera lenses.  There will be no filter wheel and there will be one fixed filter per camera.  These will be Astrodon 3nm Ha and OIII.  A common 3D printed dew shield will be used.  This rig will be fully remotely operated with remote focussing and mount control using INDI/KStars/Ekos software and a Raspberry Pi to operate the rig.
Gina

Gina

23

Setting up a Raspberry Pi for Astro Imaging and Hardware Control

This is a tutorial explaining how to install an operating system and software into a micro SD card to use in a Raspberry Pi for astro imaging and control of the relevant hardware.  I have copied relevant posts from a thread in the Discussions - Software forum :- Tutorial :- Setting up a Raspberry Pi for Astro Imaging and Hardware Control
Gina

Gina

15

"GinaRep Giant Mk 2" 3D Printer

Following on from my abandoned original Giant printer project, this uses the same size printing platform of 400mm square but a much smaller frame.  The build height will be around 500mm.  It will use the Core-XY drive principle for the X and Y axes and the print bed will be raised and lowered to provide the Z axis.
Gina

Gina

389
×
×
  • 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.