Sunset Telescopes
Tag: telescope
Sunset Telescope
Driveway Telescope
I have been getting quite a bit of telescope time in lately, mostly in the driveway, usually using the old 8″ Astrola. I find myself awake at 4am often enough, and can get in a pleasant hour of observing before dawn.
Holoholo – A 10.1” f/4.5 Travel Telescope
Living in the islands provides excellent observing for an amateur astronomer such as myself, but there are drawbacks. I do miss the large star parties, getting together with hundreds of other observers to see other telescope setups, to learn, and to share the sky.
Thus I have made a habit of traveling to the mainland once in a while to attend one of the larger star parties. This year I will again attend Oregon Star Party. It has been a while, the last time was 2017, the year of the total solar eclipse.
Traveling from the islands to a star party makes it a challenge to bring a large telescope. Last time I borrowed an 11”, not a bad solution, it worked, but it was not my ‘scope. This time I was determined to realize a long considered idea, to build a substantially sized travel telescope. Thus Holoholo was designed and built, a 10.1” f/4.5 travel ‘scope.
Continue reading “Holoholo – A 10.1” f/4.5 Travel Telescope”Dark is Coming
Oregon Star Party 2023
A large star party is an experience worth seeking out… Hundreds of people, hundreds of telescopes, all under a dark sky.
A star party is a meeting of geeks. Technical talk of optics, electronics, and fabrication techniques like 3D printing abounds. In the afternoon and evening you will find small conversations in the shade, pull up a chair and join the discussion.
The plan was something I had executed successfully before… Fly into Portland, spend some time with my folks, then borrow the family camper for the trip out to the Ochoco Mountains for the star party.
Continue reading “Oregon Star Party 2023”Using the ZWO ASI2600MC Camera
Due to a plan that failed I ended up with a borrowed astro camera for a couple weeks. Since I have it I may as well play with it a bit.
The camera is the ZWO ASI2600MC Pro, a one-shot color camera specificaly for astrophotography. I have the ASI1600MM Pro a monochrome camera set up with a filter wheel, but have never really had a chance to use one of the modern one shot color cameras.
Continue reading “Using the ZWO ASI2600MC Camera”A Bahtinov Mask for the TeleVue 76
For some reason I have gotten along without a focus mask for the TV-76. Need to fix that… Done.
Just a quick project, about half an hour to design and four hours printing. First print a pleasing success, a completely functional part.
A Bahtinov Mask is used to get a precise focus, something I wrote about a few years back.
For this mask I used a public bit of OpenSCAD code from Jens Scheidtmann to generate the mask pattern, just tuning it for the correct sizing and performance with the TV-76. I added my own version of the support collar, making it a bit neater with fillets and properly sized to slip over the TV-76 glare shield.
You can download the SLT file for the mask from Cults3D if you need to print your own.
The part is one of a half dozen parts I have designed and printed over the last few weeks to reassemble the photo rig. A new guide camera mount, a mount for the ASI Air computer, a new glare shield for the guider, etc., etc… The utility of 3D printing a game changer for me.
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.
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.
Continue reading “A Simple Helical Crayford Focuser”Twilight Telescopes
