One step at a time…

Due to family circumstances and the economy, I’m having to push out the observatory construction. I am, however, going to begin testing my new equatorial mount, cameras and scopes to get them exercised and fully understood. I have dedicated an older laptop to the work and have worked out a plan to use a temporary Read More …

Astroberry and Raspberry PI 4

I recently purchased a Raspberry PI 4 and installed the Astroberry operating system with a collection of astrophotography imaging tools installed that make it possible to use a low-power Raspberry Pi computer at a properly configured telescope, either in the field or in a observatory. The software provides a ready platform for controlling your telescope Read More …

Bahtinov Mask Generator

I found this free software for generating your own custom Bahtinov masks. It installs on Windows with no issues and is a very quick install. https://astrojargon.net/ You can also download pre-made PDF masks at a different site at: http://www.deepskywatch.com/Articles/make-bahtinov-mask.html

Collimating a laser collimator

Newtonian reflectors require regular collimation. Thus, they need to have their collimation regularly adjusted. The caveat is that the laser device that collimates the reflector itself requires collimation to insure it is accurate and this video provides the process for doing so.

Useful Guiding Videos – PHD2 Wisdom

The following videos are useful guides for autoguiding and getting started with PHD2. Setup, Troubleshooting and Basics Astrobackyard Guiding with multiple ZWO camera in PHD2 This video references a setting for ZWO camera choice in PHD2 in the event you have TWO ZWO cameras in operation. Jump to 6:58 in the video to see how Read More …