First snow of the year here in Brockenhurst – even we didn’t get away with it this time (we quite often do). Taken with a fish-eye lens on the Canon 5D MkII at 8:00 a.m. this morning.
I have just brought the massive all-Aluminium mini-WASP pier in from the shed. I will set it up in the upstairs study with the Paramount on top to give a dry run for the computer and all the electronics. The … Continue reading
Thought I would begin a video diary on the mini-WASP array project at this time even before the hole has been dug in the ground for the obligatory concrete block. As we are all aware – any new observatory project … Continue reading
It is the first clear day in ages – makes a great change from the dull, dark, grey, completely overcast days we have been experiencing for quite a while now. This is the view towards the West from the New … Continue reading
Last night there were some breaks in the cloud and it was also unusually mild. So I took the 40D outside on the tripod (I should have taken the TT320 as well but I wasn’t thinking straight yesterday for reasons … Continue reading
I have security alarms, and a fire extinguisher handy for the observatory – but it took a recent catastrophic failure of a PSU to make me think about putting a smoke alarm in there! Fortunately I had two battery operated … Continue reading
Have you ever had the problem where the time indicated on one of your clocks (including your computer’s clock) is different to another one? Well, I have and it can certainly cause headaches when trying to analyse the large amounts of data that … Continue reading
As I am located in the New Forest, you can imagine that for some months of the year, particularly from late September until late November, condensation is a major problem in the dome. I have always used a product called … Continue reading
We seem to have more than our fair share of power cuts in Brockenhurst and this has resulted in damage to both my computer and to the Celestron motor drive boards, both of which are very unpleasant experiences as you … Continue reading
Finally! I have managed to eradicate the one minus point of having the Nexstar and motor drives in the dome! I upgraded the motor drives from version 30.30 to version 40.40 (download available from the Celestron site). Amongst the many … Continue reading
