Drift Alignment Completed

Managed to have a cloudless evening last night, so I was able to finish with the drift alignment.

Drift alignment basically is a procedure for aligning the axis of my telescope mount with the axis of the earth.

That way when I turn on the clock drive on the mount, the mount will keep the object that I have the telescope on centered in the eyepiece for as long as I want.

Did a little broadcasting of the moon, Jupiter, Saturn and the Orion Nebula last night. I had removed the stock ir (infrared) filter from the camera the other day to allow more of the colors that the stock filter blocks out.

The video and broadcasting portion of what I’m doing is fairly new to me, but it is coming along. Previously most of what I had done in my observatory consisted of taking photos with a dslr camera and just viewing through different eyepieces.

Drift Alignment

Worked on drift alignment last night. Weather was un-cooperative. Managed

to get the azimuth fairly well adjusted, but will have to try another evening to

get the elevation adjusted.

More Broadcasting

Did some more broadcasting last night. Started off with Jupiter, then went to the trapezium in Orion.

Finished off the evening with a low on the horizon view of Saturn.

Second broadcast

Did another broadcast on nightskiesnetwork last night.

Also, updated this page with a link to my observatory construction. It can be found

on the right side of page under the blogroll

Night Skies Network

well tonight was my first night broadcasting on the night skies network. What a blast that was. People all over the world were able to watch my live video broadcast from my telescope. Spent alot of time on the moon as well as Saturn. Also got to watch a little bit of Jupiter. I was using a webcam tonight, but plans are in the works for being able to do some deep sky objects with the live video also.

if you are interested in seeing what alot of folks are doing live then check out the following link

http://www.nightskiesnetwork.com

If a person has a live feed going on, their station will be listed in red.

If you see Brogdon Observatory in red click on the link and stop in.

Also, a big thanks to all who are helping in this area with my startup.

9.25″ SCT

Finally got around to putting the new 9.25 in the observatory. Installed Bob’s Knobs and proceeded with collimation of the scope. The factory focus adjust knob has  a stiff spot in it. Unlike my 8″ SCT this one is not very smooth at all. Called Orion and they said it shouldn’t be like that and to send it back. So, I guess it will be another month or more before I will be able to start taking images again. Hopefully that will give me time to get well aquainted with the used ST-4 autoguider that I picked up. It has been awhile since I’ve posted on here, or taken any photos, but hopefully that will change once I receive my scope back.

>Bahtinov Mask

>Today at work we laser burned bahtinov masks for the 6″ reflector and the 8″ sct out of .050 thick aluminum. For those unfamiliar with what a bahtinov mask is, it allows you to achieve perfect focus on your astrophotography by providing diffraction lines that can be centered while focusing.

Once the mask is placed on the telescope and your image looks like below your focus is correct.

While ratcheting the focus in and out the middle diffraction line will move up and down. Precise focus is achieved when middle spike falls exactly in the middle.

>Observatory Construction

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Notice the security system in the top two photos.

>Observatory Construction

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>Observatory Construction

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