It’s been a fairly blue day and I had hopes of glimpsing Pan-STARRS. I went out after sunset, and between the crescent moon and the sun is a beautifully textured but mostly opaque mass of cirrus. Quite a lovely evening but not a glimpse of the comet through the binoculars. I was helped by Callie … Read more
Periodically there’s a thread on the AstroPhysics forum on why the scope isn’t exactly on target, and sometimes a lot off target, after start up and un-parking. There are lots of mechanical reasons for this: if the optics of the scope are not parallel to the scope’s axis (“unorthogonality”); flexure of the scope in relation … Read more
On a rare clear night, I wanted to improve the auto-focus routine, and spent some time getting it pretty close, Then I picked a promising object somewhat at random, which turned out surprisingly well. NGC 2775 has a very tight spiral structure with very fine detail that reminds me of M63, the “sunflower” galaxy, but … Read more
While traveling, Jean has a pretty hard time resisting flea markets, and some years ago, we stopped at one that gave me a particular amount of trouble. I prefer to avoid them since my common sense abandons me and I end up with odd things I end up wondering “what was I thinking?” In any … Read more
Yet another weird entry in the NGC, NGC 2371-2, is a lovely bi-polar planetary nebula that got two names because it visually looks sort of like two separate objects. Images make it clear that both objects are part of the same expanding shell of a fine planetary. This was a really crisp clear night, in … Read more
My new MBP (ML 10.8.2) has an unexpected morning behavior. Instead of just popping the lid and getting started, I’m now treated to the “wake from hibernation” screen, and it takes a minute or two to get working. Apparently there’s some new power management thing going on, so it’s time to poke around in the … Read more
Some time ago I got a Web Power Switch 4 for the hut to remote control power for the scope, cameras, and PC and future stuff like roof control and a light to illuminate a webcam. I believe this is now replaced by the Web Power Switch 5, but they seem to be pretty similar. … Read more
One would expect it should be easy to save a man page from terminal for review, and it is, but it doesn’t work the way you expect. I would expect that “man col > col.txt” should save a nice text file in the home directory, but the results are strange: COL(1) BSD … Read more
After months of a restructuring study, it can’t be good to find yourself scheduled for a meeting with your VP at 8:15 am on the first day back after a holiday weekend. Ascending in the elevator, the today’s-the-day atmosphere was palpable. I had a brief meeting with the VP and a lady from HR, and … Read more
My friend and neighbor Mel is going to help me make my first Dob. He’s a retired tool-and-die guy, and knows how metal works. I’ve been studying David Kriege and Richard Berry’s excellent book on the topic, The Dobsonian Telescope. Per their recommendations, we are beginning with the mirror cell, and between the odds … Read more