NTT16 Progress
Sorry no pictures of the actual scope but got a lot done over the Xmas holidays, all the major components are complete, just need to debug. I had an epiphany…
Strain Analysis
Before starting to grind my 24″ project down to a more reasonable focal length I decided to test the blank for strains within the glass that would prevent it from…
Stripping the Coatings
Finally got my FeCl and stripped the two mirrors I’ll be working on this winter – the 12″ is perforated so it was a pain putting a dam in the…
New 24″ Project Glass Arrives!
After years of wondering the best way to create mirror blanks in the 20″ and up class using kilns etc. turns out all you have to do is hang out…
The Rose of Winter
The Rosette Nebula in Monoceros. Imaged on iTelescope T20, a 106mm Takahashi refractor with an SBIG STL-11000 camera by taking 6 300s exposures each in Luminence, Red, Green, Blue filters…
Raspberry Pi HQ Camera Astronomy Camera
The camera is on the telescope ready to test! I’ve mounted the RpiHQ camera on a Raspberry Pi case with a Pi4 4GB and written a web based interface to…
Observatory Roof Renovation
Since my observatory run-off roof hasn’t really changed since it was built in 2002, it needs some remedial work. That’s a hell of a lot of weight sliding around to…
Building the Poor Man’s Star Analyzer (PMSA) Spectrograph
After attending the Sacramento Mountain Spectroscopy Workshop last year and getting excited about doing spectroscopy on my own telescope, I’ve been looking at various spectrometers for quite a while but…
New Raspberry Pi HQ Camera Testing
The Raspberry Pi camera modules have been around for quite a while but the latest model is of real interest to an astronomer because it not only allows interchangeable lenses…
Raspberry Pi Camera evaluation for Astronomy
While my allsky camera (www.gordtulloch.com/allsky) is working fantastically well, I’m also looking at making some projects that need a camera that doesn’t cost $400! In particular a standalone platesolver similar…