The Astronomy hobby thread

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by Cajundaddy

I am assuming you know this already but the primary and corrector plate have a very precise alignment that is not easily replicated without fairly sophisticated optical testing tools. Before separating the corrector, it is always suggested that you have a mechanism to restore this alignment so you don't create a lot of hours re-aligning. This vid is instructive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e66yIuD3cMk

Thank you for the advice. I've worked on (meaning, designed, built, updated, repaired, adjusted, aligned, re-coated, star tested, rewired, and automated) telescopes between 4 inches and...well, 8.4 meters across. I've built domes and poured piers for professional scopes, I've folded myself into a pretzel to squeeze into the fork arm of a 2-meter class telescope to measure pre-load on the right ascension gear, I've stood on the primary mirror of the Large Binocular Mirror telescope (but only one of the two...), I've hand glued metal disks on a thin "contact lens" mirror so that pizo-electric actuators have something to grab on to when they warp the mirror for adaptive optics, and I've put an evaporated aluminum coating on an experimental carbon fiber mirror. I've run wiring up the side of a mountain, I've dug ditches at 11,000 ft elevation for new fiber lines, I've even run an end-loader to clean the road of snow during the winter, so the next group of astronomers can get to the scope.

About the only thing I've not done is cut a brand new worm gear on a mill, I'll leave stuff like that to someone with more experience.

That being said, it was almost always as a team. Jumping in alone, even for something small and relatively simple like a commercial telescope, is scary. And yes, I have broken glass before, I have a piece of a $50k mirror hung on my wall at work to remind me that Big Science means Big Mistakes.

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

Thank you for the advice. I've worked on (meaning, designed, built, updated, repaired, adjusted, aligned, re-coated, star tested, rewired, and automated) telescopes between 4 inches and...well, 8.4 meters across. I've built domes and poured piers for professional scopes, I've folded myself into a pretzel to squeeze into the fork arm of a 2-meter class telescope to measure pre-load on the right ascension gear, I've stood on the primary mirror of the Large Binocular Mirror telescope (but only one of the two...), I've hand glued metal disks on a thin "contact lens" mirror so that pizo-electric actuators have something to grab on to when they warp the mirror for adaptive optics, and I've put an evaporated aluminum coating on an experimental carbon fiber mirror. I've run wiring up the side of a mountain, I've dug ditches at 11,000 ft elevation for new fiber lines, I've even run an end-loader to clean the road of snow during the winter, so the next group of astronomers can get to the scope.

About the only thing I've not done is cut a brand new worm gear on a mill, I'll leave stuff like that to someone with more experience.

That being said, it was almost always as a team. Jumping in alone, even for something small and relatively simple like a commercial telescope, is scary. And yes, I have broken glass before, I have a piece of a $50k mirror hung on my wall at work to remind me that Big Science means Big Mistakes.

Wanna come help me build my enclosure?

[Eric Hahl]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

Wanna come help me build my enclosure?

Yeah Mike, I could use some help too!

[Pazuzu]

Yes. Yes I do want to do that.

No, really!

I want to get out of my daily job and build custom observatories for rich people. I want to put telescopes in there that I have selected and souped up, I want to set up remote observing stations in their basement that run the scope outside remotely, and I want to get rich doing that. Or, at least I want to spend lots of time in the field traveling around doing telescope-related things The equipment side of astronomy was always more interesting to me than the research side.

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

Yes. Yes I do want to do that.

No, really!

I want to get out of my daily job and build custom observatories for rich people. I want to put telescopes in there that I have selected and souped up, I want to set up remote observing stations in their basement that run the scope outside remotely, and I want to get rich doing that. Or, at least I want to spend lots of time in the field traveling around doing telescope-related things The equipment side of astronomy was always more interesting to me than the research side.

Well then maybe you'd be willing to advise me on how to attach my CGEM drive to the pier without a wedge? I'm not rich but you can count on being compensated in some way!

[Rusty Heap]

I am but Krill, in the ocean of some stellar work you guys pull off.


Stellar.......(pun intended)


I was on a 50 mile off shore Belize Atoll, remote dive resort.



Mere Mortal Equipment. Sony APS-C 25 meg pix A6300 body with 12mm F4.5 lens.

30 second exposure ISO 4000.

Pointed off shore east, next countrys light pollution was 1000's of bare ocean miles away.

[Eric Hahl]

I spy Orion! Nice shot!

[Rusty Heap]

blink

[Rusty Heap]

Same Belize Atoll and camera body.

My attempt at the Milky Way swath that shown bright.

Only 6 seconds at ISO 6400.


new fast F1.4 lens 30mm



no tripod, just used self-timer shutter and point camera straight up.........to see what you can get just resting camera on the bench.


shrug

[Eric Hahl]

Can even see cloud structure in there at 6 seconds!

[Rusty Heap]

Shameless but worthy plug of my other thread, for those might of missed it.


I'm open to explanations if I'm making wrong assumptions.

My Exploding meteor. At home, not on a sandy beach.

https://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/1020623-astrophotography-my-exploding-meteor.html

[Eric Hahl]

Here's a shot near Cygnus of the Milky way. Can see the Elephants trunk nebula, North American nebula, Pelican Nebula (Hey, Pelican!) the Veil nebula and lots of other nebula.

[Rusty Heap]

Originally Posted by Eric Hahl

Here's the Milky way. Can see the Elephants trunk nebula

Us engineers can find humor in anything.......

Proud nerd son of Saturn V dad. and yes I'm a rocket scientist.


Q: Contestant - "Alex, I'll take Birthing Nebula in Astronomy for a True Daily Double please"

Alex asks "Approximately - 1340 light years away"


The answer:

"How many light years away are the Orion Sperm and will they be friendly when they arrive to have rapture with our Women or other LGBTQIXYZBFD community? "




According to NASA (.org) Alnitak, the star at the left side of Orion's belt, is 817 light years away. (A light year is the distance light travels in one Earth year, almost 6 trillion miles) Alnilam, the star in the middle of the belt, is 1340 light years away.



I figure they're swimming from the middle of belt....yes they're coming!








same equipment as my exploding meteor shoot prior post.

Just like with my Wife of 30 years.............Sperm were captured at 25 seconds. f5 110mmoans ISO 6400

[Eric Hahl]

/\
lol!

[flatbutt]

Nice bonus!

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

Thank you for the advice. I've worked on (meaning, designed, built, updated, repaired, adjusted, aligned, re-coated, star tested, rewired, and automated) telescopes between 4 inches and...well, 8.4 meters across. I've built domes and poured piers for professional scopes, I've folded myself into a pretzel to squeeze into the fork arm of a 2-meter class telescope to measure pre-load on the right ascension gear, I've stood on the primary mirror of the Large Binocular Mirror telescope (but only one of the two...)

blah, blah, blah

Yeah, all that’s nice, but did you watch the video?

[bugstrider]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Pazuzu]

Well...I've registered a business name with the Secretary of State, and in 48 hours I will be Axis Squared LLC. Telescope blueprinting, observatory design, mount rebuild and upgrades. "Good at telescopes, bad at grammar..."

I have bought a few thousand dollars worth of used inventory (for a fraction of it's value). All of it will be torn down and put back together, hopefully better

Fltatbutt, send me your CGEM, give me a month and I'll give you something better in return. I'm picking up a CGE later this month, and I have an AVX in the "shop" that I got this weekend. I'm looking at an Orion Sirius EQ-G and several 8 inch SCTs of various brands and styles.

I've also accumulated several hundred dollars in extra accessories that keep getting "thrown in" to my purchases...


I hope you're all happy, this thread was one of the things that pushed me into this!

[Eric Hahl]

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

Well...I've registered a business name with the Secretary of State, and in 48 hours I will be Axis Squared LLC. Telescope blueprinting, observatory design, mount rebuild and upgrades. "Good at telescopes, bad at grammar..."

I have bought a few thousand dollars worth of used inventory (for a fraction of it's value). All of it will be torn down and put back together, hopefully better

Fltatbutt, send me your CGEM, give me a month and I'll give you something better in return. I'm picking up a CGE later this month, and I have an AVX in the "shop" that I got this weekend. I'm looking at an Orion Sirius EQ-G and several 8 inch SCTs of various brands and styles.

I've also accumulated several hundred dollars in extra accessories that keep getting "thrown in" to my purchases...


I hope you're all happy, this thread was one of the things that pushed me into this!

Right on! Good luck!

[bugstrider]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk