STARLOG · 7 NOTES

Notes

Field notes and build notes: the rig, the capture chain, the automation.

NOTE · 10/26

The mosaic measures the Moon before it lays the tiles

Written the day after two 43-panel runs each missed most of the half Moon. Every goto that night landed within two arcseconds. The tiles were in the wrong place because the grid was laid out around…

NOTE · 09/26

Turn the exposure right down in daylight

Out in a gale this afternoon with the Moon sitting at 55 degrees in a blue sky, and the first thing the camera gave me was a completely white screen while I could see the Moon perfectly well through…

NOTE · 09/26

Daylight plan: teaching the mount to keep tracking between panels

The one job left from 19 September. Written down before I start because it involves unbounded motion, and the whole point is to do it somewhere I can watch it rather than at 21:00 on the one clear…

NOTE · 09/26

How the lunar mosaic is made, end to end

Written down properly after the 19 September run, because the method now has enough moving parts that I will not remember which order they go in, or why half of them are the way they are. This is…

NOTE · 09/26

Didn't set up, and then it clouded over anyway

Checked what the Moon was doing tonight and decided not to bother. Then it clouded over. First time a decision not to observe has been confirmed by the sky an hour later.

NOTE · 08/26

Can't see the fucken Moon

Stood out the back staring at an empty sky wondering what I'd broken. Checked the settings. Checked the exposure. Checked the histogram — a single spike jammed hard against the left edge, no light…

NOTE · 08/26

Can't line it up — there's no finder scope

Lining up on Venus is the hardest part of the night by a distance. There is no finder scope on this telescope at all, so aiming means eyeballing along the tube and then hunting blind across a 46' x…