Starstruck

A partial replay of a few nights ago, with the roof very stiff to open. As I heaved and pushed it eventually came free and rolled to the other end of the shed with a booming shriek. Dogs in backyards around began to bark, and my next-door neighbour’s lights snapped on. I sat quietly until [...]

I was hoping to stay up tonight and observe, but though I waited until just after midnight to make a decision, I’ve decided I’m just too tired to do it, and once I complete this entry I’ll head off to bed.

The problem is that I’ve been doing this for several nights now. Last night I [...]

This is a reworked verson of the image capture from 19 September 1 am. Previously I had saved this as double size from Lynkeos, but this time I saved it at normal size (as captured) and then did a little further image sharpening with Photoshop.

The last time I imaged Mars I was happy to get a few images, but I really wanted to capture more. This time around I was ready to fire up a Toucam II for the first time with the FLT and a 5x Powermate, but I ran into a few problems.

The first (and anticipated) problem [...]

I reset the mount parameters, and needed to synch on something. The moon was available, so why not? Well, it’s not that it’s impossible—it certainly can be done—but it’s not something one should do, at least, not on a low power. On a low power you’re taking the brightness of the moon, as gathered by [...]

The roof was well stuck—I had to get to the outside and shove, go back inside and pull (and lift), go back outside and shove, go back inside—it took a number of cycles before I got the roof off the 4×4 which forms the top of the south wall, but eventually I got the roof [...]

In anticipation of a good night of observing I started working on the scope. The Telrad is poorly placed for use with the FLT-110 and the Express 80 at the same time, so I figured I’d move it around to the other side. However, when I turned it on as a check I found the [...]

I just finished reading Astrophoto Insight, a new on-line newsletter for astro-imagers. Worth a look!

I was looking at the current issue of Lens Work and admiring the gorgeous black levels in the photos. They achieve an incredibly deep warm black which is comparable in quality to the very best art prints. Mind you, the magazine is expensive for its size, so I suppose you should expect high quality, but [...]

All or any of the following items may be true for some value of true. But….
—The devastation in New Orleans could have been avoided!
—The destruction of New Orleans was predicted, but inevitable.
—The guvmint dint do enuf!.
—The government allocated resources according to the perceived risk and performed acceptably given the circumstances.
—Bush is a jackass!
—Bush is a [...]