Category Archives: Uncategorized

I have a Celestron 8se that I picked up used and in rather bad shape and after tuning it up I’m planning to resell it to a worthy home.  However, before I let it go I realized I needed to … Continue reading →

After completing the bearing upgrade on the azimuth/RA axis of my Celestron CPC Deluxe 1100 HD 11″ EdgeHD telescope, I followed up with a rebuild of the elevation/declination axis drive.  This effort was more about addressing issues with the drive mechanism itself … Continue reading →

In a somewhat misguided attempt to improve the tracking on my Celestron CPC Deluxe 1100 HD 11″ EdgeHD telescope, I decided to perform the bearing upgrade described by Gary Bennett on the NexStar Resource Site. I started by moving the EdgeHD … Continue reading →

So I finally bit the bullet and upgraded to Windows 10 on my observatory machines.  After the tremendous headaches I had on my main machine when I migrated from the pre-release Windows Insider version to the final released version, I … Continue reading →

I’ve spent the last month or so capturing wide field images with my Sigma 70-300 mm on my Celestron Nightscape.  (Ok, so they’re really Fall Wide Fields.)  With the stack of adapters I’m using to get from the Nikon bayonet … Continue reading →

For a number of years now I’ve been peripherally involved in the effort to bring a planetarium to Central Texas.  The brain child of Torvald Hessel, the effort to create the Austin Planetarium eventually grew into the Texas Museum of … Continue reading →

Introduction With the remote location of the observatory, I’m pretty limited on my choices for internet, especially since I’m more interested in uplink data rates rather than downlink, in order to facilitate remote control of the observatory.  Of course being able … Continue reading →

The Planetary Society with Bill Nye (the Science Guy) had a Kickstarter campaign to develop a light sail CubeSat using public funds.  I just received my notice that they’ve completed the campaign and are ready to send me my goodie bag … Continue reading →

I’ve added a Links of Interest page with a lot of detail providing a handful of links to places I regularly visit or would like to regularly visit.  I also included information on some of my favorite telescope equipment vendors. … Continue reading →

So I got my Geoptik lens adapter and Losmandy camera mount in a couple of weeks ago.  We’ve been under cloudy skies pretty much constantly, so I haven’t had much opportunity to put this to use, but I’ve post some … Continue reading →