The biggest pain involved in getting the best out of a Hyperstar is getting the collimation sorted. As it was a full Moon last night I thought I would start from scratch (deliberately way out of collimation) and then see … Continue reading
Quite some time ago I wrote up a piece on how a vertically oriented mirror laterally inverts an image (it doesn’t by the way). People quite often ask, if a mirror inverts laterally, then why doesn’t it invert vertically as … Continue reading
GAIA is not “intelligent” – it is a highly complex, highly-interacting system, slowly built up over 4.6 billion years. GAIA’s only “job” is to try and maintain an overall equilibrium of the system. So if something crops up that severely … Continue reading
I have just completed a major upgrade to the MiniWASP array, specifically the 2 Canon 200mm f#2.8 prime lenses. You can now see there are a pair of red cameras on the back instead of the usual black ones. These … Continue reading
I had absolutely no idea it was an ISS lunar transit last night, which is why the picture is so badly framed. But at least I captured it. And here is the single frame of the transit.
Yesterday I received a couple of deliveries to completely upgrade the MiniWASP array, both the 3 x Sky90s and the 2 x 200mm Canon lenses. I am glad the weather continues to be awful as it means I’ll be able … Continue reading
Here is a 5th order Menger sponge I made up from 20 4th order Menger sponges printed out on a 3D printer. A 30cm ruler is included for scale.
Here’s another long 7-minute pass of the International Space Station from earlier this month (I’ve only just got around to processing the 17 frames of data). Annoyingly, as you can see, I didn’t continue long enough off the right hand … Continue reading
A nice long 7-minute pass of the space station tonight. It has been good all week with long passes – but it has also been mostly clouded out.
Another clear (but not Moonless) night last night – so it was perfect for setting up the array. Managed to get the 3 Sky90s aligned, focused, and sensors flattened – so the Sky90 array is now ready for some clear, … Continue reading
