Scattered Thoughts . . .

S ometimes, when Sheila or the grandkids are observing the sky with me, I can't help but think that having two telescopes mounted side-by-side would make things a bit easier.  For years, I've been saying that I'll put together a piece of hardware to allow me to do this but I never got around to it.  I could always set up two complete telescopes with two complete mounts but that is a lot more work.  Plus, then I would be going back and forth between the two mounts making sure they are both centered on the object we are observing.  A way to mount two telescopes side-by-side, tracking together on the same mount, would be a bit easier.   Well, while I was laid up with my knee injury (I'm still mostly laid up with this knee injury), I was doing some internet surfing looking at astronomy parts.  I found a source for a nice heavy duty dovetail mounting plate that would be perfect for this assembly and I already knew I had a good source for two saddles.  I ordered all three pa

I 'm still mending a sprained MCL in my right knee so I'm still not really accomplishing much on my To-Do list.  Every now and then, however, I feel halfway decent and am able to jump into a small little project at the kitchen table.  This still needs to be short because I need to keep changing positions...  no sitting for a long period of time, no standing for a long period of time.  This keeps the size of these occasional projects on the very small side.  Plus, the longer I work on any project, the more likely I am to do something stupid with my knee.  The last thing I want at this point is to be set back to square one yet again.   I have this old Celestron 70mm refractor telescope that, in recent years, I adapted to a different type of mount.  In order to do that upgrade, I needed to remove a bunch of mounting hardware that was bolted through the optical tube.  This hardware wasn't needed and was in the way of the new mounting cradle rings and dovetail bar so most of the

I finished my homemade telescope pier extension project today and it seems to be working as planned. There isn't a whole lot in life that is more satisfying than designing something in sketches in a notebook, then building each individual part yourself, then assembling all the parts and finding that everything works just as designed and planned! My primary problem that prompted this project was that my longer telescopes would hit the tripod legs when viewing almost straight upward.  Also a factor in my decision is that my astronomy tripod isn't tall enough for my longer refractor telescopes which meant I would need to sit down very low on the ground to see into the eyepiece.  I needed a pier extension to raise the mount and telescope higher.   Some may ask why I don't just extend the legs fully to gain some overall height but this is a bad idea for two reasons.  First, it will do nothing for me to resolve the telescope colliding with the tripod legs.  And next, the more yo

A s usual, whenever my health allows, I tend to be working on a few projects at the same time.  At the moment, I'm working on making a couple of aperture masks for one of my telescopes, I'm doing some landscaping around the house, I'm making some small springtime repairs around the house as I come across them, I'm repairing the grill in our outdoor kitchen, and I'm designing and making a telescope mount pier extension.  This particular blog entry is about the pier extension project thus far.   Quite often, especially if I use one of my longer refractor telescopes but it is not limited to this one telescope, I find myself wishing I had a taller tripod for my telescope mount.  Sometimes, even when sitting on a very low stool, I need to get my butt off the stool and sit on the ground because the eyepiece is closer to the ground than my eye in a sitting position.  If I use my longest refractor telescope, the telescope will even hit the tripod legs when pointing at or ne

A few days ago, while still recovering from mast cell symptoms, the sun had peaked through the clouds so I grabbed a lightweight telescope with a solar filter and headed outside.   I wasn't feeling well enough to do any solar imaging (that can get complicated and involves a lot more gear...  as well as a clear head) so I just grabbed one of my lightest scopes which happens to be my lowest quality scope too.  Even though this was my lowest quality scope, I knew it would be good enough for a few quick views of the sun.  Besides, it was still mostly cloudy and the sun was just peaking out in between clouds.  I knew the solar observing would be short-lived on this day so it would have been a waste to use up energy on my better, heavier and bulkier astronomy gear. The moment I peered through the telescope, I realized that the sky conditions were lousy too.  I hadn't noticed it before but it was hazy and the sun was veiled in thin clouds that I could see passing in front of the sun. 

Over the snowy Mother's Day weekend, I spent a little bit of time sorting out and organizing some of my astronomy gear indoors in this warmth.  The priority was to find a way to organize a bunch of eyepieces.   Fortunately, I have been sticking to putting together specific mini sets so it is not like I have a scattered selection of mismatched eyepieces.  I've been purposely purchasing eyepieces that will fit my specific needs...  including staying within financial limits.   I have stuck with a plan of putting together small cases for grab-and-go use.  It will be easy to grab one of these cases and a small telescope if I'm in a hurry to see something.  Each zippered case is approximately 6"x9" and 2" deep.   I put together a small set of GSO Plossls.  These are quite inexpensive but are pretty good eyepieces.  With each set, I included a 2.5x Barlow lens so I only included long, wide view eyepieces with long eye relief.  I wear eyeglasses so my prima

The guide scope and guide camera that I use with my astronomy gear is old.  Actually, by digital standards, the guide camera is considered ancient!  I've wanted to test this guide scope/camera combo again at night so I can determine if upgrading would be worth it.  I haven't been all that happy with the imaging I am getting with that camera.  Last night, we had completely overcast skies so there were absolutely no stars visible but the moon was faintly glowing through the clouds. I quickly mounted my guide scope on my tripod.  Then I attached my guide camera to the little guide scope.  Then I grabbed my Windows tablet and headed outside to the deck with everything in tow.  I pointed the guide scope at the moon and then adjusted the settings of the camera using my tablet...  and here is the resulting image... There are a few things worth noting here.   First, considering how overcast the skies were last night and how the moon was mostly obscured by those clouds, it i

The weather has been lousy this week so I've been indoors.  As luck would have it, for a change, my health is also lousy as I continue to rebound from the side-effects of my last Shingles vaccine so not much has been lost solely due to the lousy weather this time around.  I'd be stuck inside anyway due to my poor health.  It's worth noting that it is rare when the weather and my health are in sync like this!  Regardless of the lousy weather and lousy health, I have managed to do some much needed organization of astronomy gear a little bit each day over the past couple of mornings.  I'd do a little bit...  take a break...  do a bit more...  take another break...  go back to it the following morning...  take a break...  etc.   My first priority was to find and purchase a couple of heavy duty cases for two of my mount heads.  I purchased a large sized case for my smaller mount head and an extra large case for the larger, heavier mount head.  I had also ordered some close

After we had finished cleaning up from our concrete work yesterday and while I was making a pasta salad for dinner, we received a call from Liza saying the kids wanted to come over for dinner.  Naturally, we thought that was a good idea and told them to come on over.   Lukey helped to start a fire...  which was a little smokey at times...  Kenzie was afraid the fire department would show up and I think we all went to bed with slightly irritated eyes!  The kids made some hot dogs on the fire before dinner.  For dinner, we had bacon cheeseburgers and pasta salad. Since it was one of those days when the moon was high in the sky all afternoon, I decided to take one of the telescopes out so the kids could view the moon as night approached... Kenzie had a little difficulty correctly positioning her eye over the huge eyepiece but she eventually figured it out.  If you are too close or too much to one side of the big eyepiece, you sometimes will see nothing.  In this case, mo