Astronomy

Introduction I never thought that I would be starting an article containing the statement “moving from Linux to Windows”, but this is exactly what will be happening with my main imaging scope set up in a few days. For those who don’t know anything about me, I have spent decades… (hmm, yes it is now measurable in decades!) using Linux based operating systems - since the early Red Hat days of the late 1990’s, and being comfortable with that environment, it has always been the first port of call for any home project, such as a telescope mounted observation control platform. ...

So here begins the June 2020 roundup. This month is a bit of a random collection of the moon, satellite passes, star trails and an inner Solar system planetary conjunction! ...

Introduction As well as the telescope pier I like to have a DSLR (an astro-modified Canon EOS 450D) on a Skywatcher Star Adventurer mount around in the garden. It makes for a nice little mobile arrangement that can be set up at a moment’s notice. Usually the set up consists of the camera, a lens warmer, power for the mount and an intervalometer for controlling the timing of pictures being captured. Having really enjoyed setting up a Raspberry Pi 4 running KStars, EKOS and INDI for the pier based telescope I thought that putting a ‘one stop’ solution together, able to do the same as the above plus a few extras, for the DSLR would be a great little side project. ...

It has been a strange couple of months, what with the current Coronavirus epidemic raging around us, but I have managed to capture a few astronomical events from the garden in any case. So here begins the April 2020 roundup. ...

Introduction Setting up a new telescope is not an easy task. It takes some planning and thought to get the set up right first time. I have made an attempt to plan out everything that I will need before getting started. Using a handy copy of Visio I had lying about I have put together a handful of block level diagrams to help me out. This process gives me an overview of what is needed to make sure that the system is complete and that everything has been thought of, as far as possible. Following is a run through of my plans and my thoughts regarding what issues they raised. ...

Introduction This series of articles will chronicle the process of building a permanent astronomy telescope pier in my garden. A permanent pier makes the setting up process for an night of astrophotography or visual observing far less laborious. This is because the pier is already aligned with the celestial pole, via the North peg on top of the mount adapter. Power and network adapters are immediately to hand, removing the work of laying cables out from the shed and putting them away later after each observing or astrophotography session. ...