Welcome to NIGHT SKY IN FOCUS!
Call Sign: DU1AU
Email: du1au@nightskyinfocus.com
Night Sky in Focus started out in 2012 as an astrophotography blog, but after getting an amateur radio license in 2017, I have now expanded it to include satellite communications, which is an aspect of amateur radio.
Night Sky in Focus
Astronomy and Amateur Radio
© Anthony Urbano (Manila, Philippines)
Great blog, man! I just bought a refractor telescope and can’t wait to use it again tonight!! Let me know once your observatory is done.
Hi Ule, how’s your refractor :) currently what I have is a mobile setup, which I intend to house in a dome, perhaps in the future :)
Really appreciate the straightforward approach to explaining some of the more technical aspects of astro-imaging, I was having difficulty with things like autoguiding, drift alignment and various how-to guides on modifying webcams before I found this blog. Thank you!
Thank Jay! I am glad to be of help with the more technical aspects of astrophotography :)
I was looking at your guide cam project, you said you only have to control east and west, but I am not polar , I am alt. az. so how would you wire that and also I do not have parallel port on laptop so how would you do that ?
Hi Steve,
Any mount in alt-az configuration (that is, a mount that moves the telescope in an up-down-left-right manner) is not well-suited for imaging even if you get it to track with very high precision, since the image being taken will always appear to rotate (as framed with your camera). Large observatories with alt-azimuth mounts have special equipment called a derotator to compensate for this. Whenever possible, telescopes are mounted in an equatorial configuration since it only needs one motor to accurately track (as compared to 2 motors needed in an alt-az mount). All things being equal, an equatorially mounted telescope will always be superior (in terms of tracking accuracy) to an altitude-azimuth telescope.
My suggestion would be to use what is called a wedge, to operate your alt-azimuth mount in an equatorial configuration. Regarding parallel port, you can simply use what is called a Guide Port USB interface (or GPUSB). It is a device that allows a computer to talk to your mount. I am already using one since I have upgraded to a newer laptop with no parallel port.
Eteny,
We love your site here in the US. Keep up the great work !
I would like to suggest that you change your text font’s from purple to white, on your black backgrounds. We can’t read them!!
Thank you .
BL
Hi Bruce, kindly refresh your browser. I have been using white text on black background ever since :)
Enjoy the info on your site.I have a diy x y guide star finder if your interested in the plans.
Let me know.it is in a pdf.
Hi Greg, can you point me to a link or send me a copy of the pdf? Thanks!
My x y star finder while not the best, it does work for me. I had been away from astronomy for a couple of years. Just got back into it . Browsing the net I saw your site. Since you like diy projects i thought this one might be of interest. In a basic form as i made it is fairly easy with off the shelf materials. Have a look and do with it as you wish. Best regards Greg
Thanks Greg! Feel free to send it to eteny@nightskyinfocus.com :) Clear skies!
What you are doing now, reminds me of all the fun I had about 30 years ago with RS-10/11 sats.. and then, the OSCAR birds.
Be careful, or you will end up using an old Satellite dish for EME and maybe end up using it for RA. Radio Astronomy (and SETI) on 1.420 Ghz (The hydrogen line or 21-centimeter line) is fun.
That’s is amazing! I am very new to this, perhaps one day I could get my hands on those satellite dishes, too ;)