Andrew

A Simple Helical Crayford Focuser

How simple can a focuser be?

This has been a bit of a design challence for me… Just how small, how simple, can I make a focuser and yet still provide excellent usability. My latest Helix 1-14 design is my best yet.

A simple helical crayford telescope focuser — A simple helical crayford focuser

As my 3D printer design skills improve I applied lessons learned and the unique capabilities of an FDM printer to the problem of a focuser. After a bit of a journey I have arrived at a design I can consider finished. Is it the final design? I may tinker some more, but I am satified for the moment.

The design is based on a few ideas from here and there, products I have seen or used, internet postings from others faced with the same challenge. I am not one for just printing someone else’s design, I rarely do that, I want to do my own, and maybe make it better.

Keck in the Snow

Fresh Snow

IRTF, Keck, Subaru, CSO, JCMT, and SMA in the snow atop Mauna Kea

Lava Crowd

A crowd viewing the lava lake glow at Kilauea Caldera

2022 in Photos

With recent history having been a bit bumpy, looking back on 2022 is not too bad in out little part of the world. More than a few good memories.

Kailua Bay on a typical Saturday Morning
PBR’s with Asparagopsis taxiformis
Harvesting algae from the PBR’s at Symbrosia
A raceway pond full of Asparagopsis taxiformis at Symbrosia
Waimea Canyon
Kīlauea lighthouse
Kōloa sugar mill
An air compressor rusts in the abandoned Kōloa sugar mill
Sunset over Lawaʻi Beach
The quintessential Alaskan charter boat anchored to fish halibut in Yakutat Bay
Ben halibut fishing in Yakutat Bay
A nice king salmon from Yakutat Bay
Icebergs on Harlequin Lake
A six inch gun emplacement from World War II at Cannon Beach, Yakutat
Total lunar eclipse on Nov 8th, 2022
Fred and Andrew Cooper at the earth’s equator along the Masaka Road, Uganda
A street in Masaka, Uganda
Line for the ferry at Nakiwogo, Uganda
Kids come to see what we are doing at the fishing village of Kazinga, Uganda
An older male lion (Panthera leo)
Tour vans arrive to view a lion
A Pied Kingfisher (Ceryle rudis) on the shoreline of Lake George, Uganda
A Rüppells starling (Lamprotornis purpuroptera) at the lodge in Katunguru
A Marabou Stork (Leptoptilos crumeniferus)
An elephant visits the Kazinga Safari Lodge at Katunguru, Uganda
A close-up of an elephant’s eye
The Toyota Land Cruiser at Kazinga village
The 2022 Mauna Loa eruption at dawn
The 2022 eruption of Mauna Loa on the second day
The 2022 eruption of Mauna Loa on the second day
Sunset over Lawaʻi Beach

2023

As usual we rang in the new year staying quietly at home. Quietly? We may have been quiet, the neighborhood was not. I have always considered the amount of fireworks the neighborhood launches to be a rough economic indicator. Apparently this last year ws not too bad, the quantity of explosives launched over Waikoloa was impressive.

While Waikoloa was impressive, Honolulu was insane…

Our celebration? Testing a little telescope and enjoying a cup of cocoa at midnight.

With celebrations complete we shall have to see what this new year brings. There is some optimism and no complete disasters looming, which after the last few years is all I am going to ask for.

Twilight Telescopes

'Scopes in the Twilight — A pair of 8″ telescopes in the twilight, with a setting Moon and Venus over Hualalai

Playing Tourist

The dentist’s office is just behind the historic Moku‘aikaua Church, and just a block from Ali‘i drive and Kailua Bay. With an appointment at 9am on a Saturday morning this leads to the question… What do I do after the teeth thing? Deb is off teaching a class at the local sewing store, thus I am on my own.

Hulihe‘e Palace on the waterfront of Kailua Bay

Leaving the car in the office parking garage I decide to walk that block from the office to the bay, just walk about and play tourist for the morning.

It is a rough surf day, not bad, but a decent swell is sending water spashing over the seawall showering the occasional tourist.

Testing a Mirror

As I have observed lately, most of the small telescope mirrors available right now are out of China, most of those produced by one company, Guan Sheng Optical or GSO. If you want a small mirror, say a 6″ or 8″ mirror, there is not a lot of choice, the mirror makers in the US generally do not do anything smaller than 10″.

A textbook Foucault knife edge test image on a 6″ f/4 mirror

The GSO mirrors range from decent to pretty bad, with no way of knowing what you will get when you order, just luck of the draw.

But how do you tell?

Is it over already?

The question of the week… Is it over?

Eruptive activity began to wane at the end of last week,with the lava fountains diminishing, then disappearing over the weekend. Views in the webcams showed a steady decrease in activity at fissure 3 over the course of several days.

At this point no lava appears to be emerging onto the surface, with only a few dribbles left in the lava flow to be seen as minor glows across the flank of the mauna.

Oddly Kilauea, after erupting continuously for over a year seems also to have paused. There is no longer any visible lava or even a glow within the Halemauʻmauʻu crater.