CCD Notes




Get this done!
    OK, enough messing around. Let's put all this gear to work. A lot of little things were
    needed to make great things happen, so figure it out already and put them in the kit. Add this venture to my "Team Sisyphus" website for projects that seem, well, Sisyphusian. (November 2006)


Wifi Astronomy, Part 2
    Two clear nights in a row. M3 isn't as good an image as last night's M13,
    but practice can't hurt.


Wifi Astronomy
    After a solid year of clouds (not as hyperbolic as you might think), I put the
    telescope out in the backyard, hooked a notebook computer to it, linked to the
    notebook wirelessly, controlled it from my office, and took data without fighting
    bugs, dew, and the muggy damp.


Sacajawea Sits for a Portrait
    The only member of the Lewis and Clark expedition immortalized in the asteroids sits for a pre-dawn portrait just in time for the 200th birthday of her son, Jean Baptiste (Pompey) Charbonneau.


More Dark Frames and Analysis.
    Now try 2x2 binning and a smaller cooling vessel. (2004 July 24)


In a Dark Time...
    If it's too cloudy to take data under the stars, take data in the kitchen.
    (2004 July 22)


Latest Pix Revisit M13, M101.
    Can I extend the camera behind the telecompressor with Nikon K-rings and still
    focus? If I use the telescope at its native F6, can I use a Maxbright diagonal to
    take up backfocus, shortening the cantilever of the focusser's drawtube? Yes, and
    yes. If you watch the guide star in Maxim and don't click on the light image before
    saving six 5-minute exposures of M13, what happens? (2004 July 15-16)


July 14-15 Comet NEAT 2001 Q4, M13, the Veil.
    The night's projects: find the best focus position behind the refractor
    with a telecompressor, find out how much in-travel is available, try out the
    IR-blocking clear filter, try out a home-made power distribution case to
    simplify set up and take down, work some kinks out of the telephoto lens
    configuration, use MaxIm 4.01 for as much as possible, and get a few photos
    to feel good about the system. (2004 July 14-15)


Comedy of Errors (Not Yet Posted)
    Try the CCD out behind the Astro-Physics refractor at its native focal
    length (F6, 762mm). Find the point of best focus, put the IR-blocking
    clear filter through its paces, experiment with the autofocussing hard- and
    software, find approximate filter offsets. Maybe make a few pretty pictures.
    (2004 July 8-9)


First Light.
    Put an SBIG ST2000XM behind a fast telephoto lens and figure out how it
    works. No guiding issues at this focal length, so the equation is somewhat
    simplified. (June 8, 2004)