theropod

You might be interested in my efforts to build a bipolar stepper driven alt/az I built using a joystick input method to make the steppers speed be proportional to joystick input. Below is a link right here on SGL where I document the whole affair. The last post is the most useful version of the Arduino sketch.

How do you plan on reversing the unipolar motor? Does your stepper driver reverse the voltage as a feature? This problem is one reason I tend to sick with bipolar steppers. The flexibility in drive options makes it much easier for me to use bipolar motors and simple drive boards like the Easy Driver and Big Easy Driver. These only need a step pulse signal and a direction signal, and the motors respond as expected every time.

IF there ever is another clear night here abouts I am planning on targeting M1, but it’s been weeks since a night like that has come along. Nice to know it’s still out there. Excellent image, BTW!

Now that’s a friend! I think my woodworking tools are about to get some use.

Y’all should view my comments above in light of the fact that I’m a grumpy old man suffering from both seasonal depression disorder and nowhere near enough clear nights. It’s foggy and raining right now, and expected to stay that way for another 4 days. I’m sure good intentions are at work here, and a few nights spent with a pro wouldn’t hurt my efforts.

During the Oregon eclipse the honey bees went crazy as totality approached, dashing from one flower to the next with gusto. When totality set in they had retired to their hive(s). There were no birds around where we were, so I can’t speak to that. All I know is that were I a rich man my hobby would be flying around the globe chasing eclipses.

I was thinking about a tent site of around 20 X 20 foot area. That should provide for a large tent, a campfire and a portapotty. The real trouble is that we live on a very steep hillside, and finding/making campsites would be a royal pain, but something I’d undertake if several folks wanted to come here. I should have spent more time in thought about all this.

Here is a map of the eclipse path across my state. The red dot in northern Arkansas, USA, just east of the path center, is an approximation of where we live. Not sure of the site where I found this, but I’m pretty sure it’s americaneclipse.com. I added the red dot. I hope to have my solar projection system all worked out by then, and the side of my house can serve as a large screen. The trip to the Willamette valley to watch that eclipse was a lifetime event, but being at home I can do all the silly things. A big foam core poster board “pin hole” camera box with a small lens, and a plexiglass viewing window, is on the list. Yes, I’m excited about it, and I hope my 67 year old self can hang in there for 3 more years! I plan to anyway.

So, I may just invite a few close friends to come hang out, and pass out eclipse glasses like candy.

Hey Y’all, April 8, 2024, an eclipse of the sun will pass over where we live, directly over us. We are within a mile (2 K) of the center path, and totality will last some time. Much longer than the one we went out to Oregon to witness. My wife and I are not rich folk. We have considered renting out a couple dozen camp sites for a few bucks. NOT ADVERTISING, as there are a ton of issues with this notion we haven’t addressed (having strangers about, our venomous snakes, ticks, chiggers (might not be hatched in April) and seriously rocky/rough topography and our liability for their idiotic behavior. Our 60 acres would/will offer some great viewing if it isn’t pouring rain by the bucket fulls. Public land is scarce around here, our property is beautiful and this a “one-off” if there ever was such a thing where we might earn a few $$’s instead of just paying taxes year in year out. Sigh. What do y’all think? Set up 18 tent sized camp sites and rent them out for 3 days @ $200 (transportation into and out, portapotty & potable water included), and a waiver of liability? I was also thinking of putting on a rock show with a bunch of bands and calling it “Ra Gets Mooned Festival”.

From what I understand someone used the detonation of a supernova to measure the time it took the light to bounce off a dust cloud a known distance from the subject star. Not sure about this as the mechanism, but remember reading about it.

Don’t light echos provide us with a one way measurement?

Re the above: those rights are apparently superseded the rights of others to enjoy the night sky.

Superb work! So much to be said for single frame shots, and this is a stunning example.

Yes, and I used that distant lone pine to make sure the crosshairs stayed true with mount rotation.

Over here in hillbilly land it’s been exceptionally cold and cloudy for the past two weeks. We got almost 13mm of sleet yesterday in the wee hours. It’s supposed to be near zero° at Daylight Monday. Later in the week a “significant” snowfall (>12”) is expected. I doubt the cloud cover will break before a week has past. Last winter it was very mild here, and up until a week ago it looked like a repeat was at hand. Buying a new mount, finishing a diy refractor and buying an eyepiece camera was the prefect storm of karma for inducing long term cloudiness, at least for me. Oh well, spring will come.

I have exact same mount, and the polar scope reticle was out of whack to me, so I fixed it. The three grub screws that lock down the reticle only need a little loosening and the reticle will free up. I set mine on a distant lone pine on a ridge a few miles away. I also pointed the reticle with the 12 o’clock straight up. I used the edge of my patio door frame as a guide to set the vertical bar of the reticle to plumb. If you do move the reticle be VERY careful about those grub screws. They are tiny and so easy to drop if backed out of the threads too much. I would also take care when tightening them back as to not strip the threads and or not crack the reticle. So, I say that if the reticle bothers you it’s no biggie to fix. It took me longer to modify an Allen key with a whet stone to fit the tiny little grub screws than to fix the issue. They’re supposed to be 2.5mm, but mine were a touch small.

Could be a spent booster stage tumbling. I get these occasionally in my wide field meteor fall hunting.

Yesterday the fog was freezing, and that means on every surface. My pickup had a sheet of ice on its entire surface. Now a winter storm/freezing rain warning has been issued for my area. About daylight it is expected to set in. Accumulating predicted to be between 1/4”-3/4” (10-18mm). Snow is one thing, but a coating of ice on EVERYTHING really causes problems beyond the cloud cover creating the event. Living in a forest makes it interesting when trees start shedding limbs, or crashing down whole. Our last such freezing rain storm resulted in our forest sounding like a war was going on. It caused major issues region-wide. The slightest puff of wind passed through the woods and was followed by a wave of cracks and booms. No trees can threaten our little house, but the 5/8 mile of our private road to public access might see several trees fall, or have large vehicle-stopping limbs ripped down. Oh well, fresh gas and bar oil are in my sharp chainsaw, and my pulling straps/chains are handy. It’s been 2 weeks since it was last clear here in hillbilly land. I brought this gloom all on myself, I bought a new mount then I finished a small diy refractor, which was compounded by an order of magnitude by me buying a SVBony SV105 usb eyepiece camera. I might have tilted the earth axis when I downloaded some (most usual stuff, ASCOM, Sterllium etc) software for the wife’s laptop. I can’t take the blame for y’all on other continents not having clear skies, but to my fellow mid Americans I am sorry. I promise not to tweak the little alt/az (hardware or software) to carry the 60 refractor no matter how much I mess about with other Arduino based stuff and want to add dip switches, and maybe encoders, to select motor step speed max’s as well as possible tracking schemes. Spring is coming, and by the stars the clouds will thin!!!

To be fair this work builds on previous efforts, but we learn by doing, and they’ve done it.

Would those brass threaded inserts used in furniture work for the pinch bolts?

This has nothing to do with scopes or astronomy in any way, BUT the interior door handle on my 1992 Ford Ranger 4x4 pickup snapped. I ordered one that day, and the USPS has no idea where it is, even though it’s supposedly tracked. Rolling down the window to open the door is a royal pain.

I will replace the hose clamp as soon as I track down the right drill bit size to make a 1/4” X 20 hole/thread to affix it properly. Give a hillbilly a break. My dad said there would never be a manned mission to the moon, and he was involved in the Manhattan project. If he could see M42, and the trapezium (sp?) he would have been blown away. I am, and everyone I know is when I show it to them, but my C90 doesn’t let down on that monster. Less stupendous are the clipped views of Andromeda. This little scope, resurrected from the dead, might just work as a guider. My buddy that has the mating objective has a PVC fitting for both objective and EP. He holds it or braces off a tree/building and swears it’s the coolest thing he owns. The binos that gave up these objectives came under the rear wheel of a full sized pickup. I’m experimenting with this little scope and the alt/az mount I built out of junk, but now driven by an Arduino to move in proportion to the movement of a joystick. I posted about it somewhere here, but I’m too lazy to track it down. That mount was a little overburdened by the C90, but this tiny refractor ought to be a dandelion seed by comparison. Might be fun to play with while the EQM is doing something else. If I could find a properly made objective in the 6” - 150mm range without having to take out a reverse mortgage to buy it I would. I know a machinist that could set me up with precise mounting thereof, among other goodies.

My 60mm DIY refractor. Only able to test on terrestrial targets, but so far so good. The oversize dew shield really knocks out side glare, and I’m not sure it will be of much use against dew but I’ll see when warmer nights come back. Using it freehand, and braced against my house, it really made M42 pop. If the stinking weather ever permits I’ll give it a good test on some faint fuzzies. I did test out my SV105 with this scope today, mostly messing around with Sharpcap, and I’m pretty pumped to get a couple hours under clear skies to push the envelope. M1? The FOV is so much wider than my C90, but the apparent magnification seems very close. Maybe this will make those 1, 2, & 3 star alignments pretty easy by comparison. My EQM 35 ought to act as if there wasn’t even a scope mounted, except for maybe wind issues, but as light (<1k) as it is I’m not worried about that too much. The objective (formerly from binos) really came to life after I removed the prism stack, and the upside down view doesn’t both me near as much as I thought it would. Sharpcap makes that a non issue.

I have no skin in the game, but the app “Nightcap Camera” for iOS provides some serious comtrol over iPhone low light photography. I use it on my antique 6s plus to capture meteor falls. I’ve held the shutter open over 20 minutes before, and the photo was surprisingly crisp. Worth a look.