Is Starship A Carbon Disaster?
During a presentation I recently made to my local RASC Winnipeg Centre an interesting question was asked: how much greenhouse gas emissions comes from a launch of Starship including the…
Kiln-ing Time During Winter
I seem to have a lot of Pyrex mirror blanks on hand and grinding it all into mirrors at the current size seems a bit of a waste. Most of…
The Penguin and the Egg
This image of distant interacting galaxies, known collectively as Arp 142, bears an uncanny resemblance to a penguin guarding an egg. Data was collected on the evening of February 2,…
3D Printing for Astronomers
UPDATE: I am now posting my 3D designs at: http://3.99.76.122/3d-printing-for-astronomers/ I have to say 3D printing is a mind blower. If you can envision it, work some easily learned 3D…
Micro-Observatory Initial Designs
With my suburban Winnipeg back yard getting brighter and brighter, I need to move my automated telescopes somewhere else that’s under dark skies. As part of that project I’ll be…
24″ Design Considerations
The design for the 24″ I’ve arrived at is based on the design in the image above (from an amateur in France), mounted on a trailer for easy transportation in…
Review: The Celestron Deluxe Off-Axis Guider
By Gord Tulloch, published in the May/June issue of RASC Winnipeg Centre Over the past couple of years, I’ve tried a few techniques for getting auto-guiding working on my Celestron…
Identifying the mystery glass!
I have a 24″ (609.6mm) diameter piece of unknown glass that weighs 72 lbs (32.6 kg) on the nose and is 2″ (50.8 mm) thick exactly. The ROC is 93″…
6″ F3.3 Extra Wide Field Newtonian Reflector
Since I have a couple of 6″ mirror blanks and need to get back into the mirror grinding groove for upcoming large telescope projects, I’ve started grinding a 6″ F/3.3…
NTT16 Assembly
My 16″ F/4.5 Telescope is pretty close to done – just have to mount the motors and belts, and test it all out. I built one set of electronics over…