Planning for Future Eclipses
We had a nice BBQ with some members of the RASC Winnipeg Centre who were in Mazatlan for the April 2024 Eclipse. The theme of the evening was planning our…
A little carried away with Fusion 360
I was modelling the rocker box on my 16″ telescope with Fusion 360 (free download for hobbyists only limited by the number of editable models in your repo) and got…
Eclipse 2024 in Mazatlan
Planning for the eclipse in 2024 actually started several years ago. When I asked my wife Marie if she wanted to go, her first thought was, “Well… we need to…
Creating Threads in Fusion 360
Astronomers use a variety of gadgets threaded together for their equipment, using some standard thread sizes that don’t come with Fusion 360 by default. Recently I decided I would try…
The Owl Lurking in the Dipper
Despite challenges with focus on my Schmidt Cassegrain telescope I do occasionally get a decent image! Here’s the Owl with 1500s of Ha and 7500s of OIII (HOO) using a…
Review: Terrans Industry OnStep V4 kit for CG5
For a few years I’ve been accumulating the bits required to create a much more portable setup for my venerable old CG5 mount. This mount was purchased in about 2002…
Limits on use of spherical mirrors on Newtonian telescopes
(Reprinted from David Knisely, Prairie Astronomy Club, Inc. to ensure it doesn’t disappear into the ether) In a Newtonian telescope, a parabolic mirror is usually used, since thatsurface focuses light…
Detecting Clouds With Machine Learning
Automating my home observatory has been a lot of fun, and a lot of challenges as well! For new readers my home observatory is a 5×5 micro-observatory (i.e. no room…
Centaurus A Final
Centaurus A (also known as ARP 152, NGC 5128 or Caldwell 77) is a galaxy in the constellation of Centaurus. It was discovered in 1826 by Scottish astronomer James Dunlop…
Casting A Tile Grinding Tool
Today I cast a tool to use to grind my 10″ mirror blank, something I haven’t done in a looong time. But it went pretty well. The one unusual thing…