Sorry I have had no updates here to post since late October, 2014. We have had more rain, snow, and cloud cover in the past month plus than I have ever noticed in the 16+ years I have lived here. Every once in a while I have been able to get out and spend a few minutes at a scope but only to have clouds move in on me quickly.
I have picked up the needed cables and connectors to use the Meade Astrostar Suite on the Meade LXD-75 gotot mount so that I can have my windows laptop control the mount. Did a little practicing during daylight without a scope on the mount. Good thing I didn't for the scope motors didn't seem to understand that they would bump into each other or the scope would have collided with the legs of the mount. I am hoping to get some help on this so that the mount will swing around to the "other side" to avoid such potentially disastrous consequences (ruined motors and ruined OTA's).
I am looking forward to relocating and enlarging the observatory building this next year so that I can get a better view of the southern skies and leave my various scopes set up for ease of use. It looks like I can build up to a 10x20 building which would be more than enough space for my three main scopes (Celestron C8, Meade LXD-75 refractor, and my 13 inch Meade Dobsonian telescope.) Maybe a little room left over for a little "warm room" where I could sit in "comfort" while the scopes go about their business. Also I am looking into picking up a MallinCam Micro-EX video ccd camera (see the bottom of that webpage) for live video of deep sky objects so that many visitors can see more than a faint blob but instead see more of the real colors of nebulas, star clusters, and galaxies "live"!
Clear skies....please!
I have picked up the needed cables and connectors to use the Meade Astrostar Suite on the Meade LXD-75 gotot mount so that I can have my windows laptop control the mount. Did a little practicing during daylight without a scope on the mount. Good thing I didn't for the scope motors didn't seem to understand that they would bump into each other or the scope would have collided with the legs of the mount. I am hoping to get some help on this so that the mount will swing around to the "other side" to avoid such potentially disastrous consequences (ruined motors and ruined OTA's).
I am looking forward to relocating and enlarging the observatory building this next year so that I can get a better view of the southern skies and leave my various scopes set up for ease of use. It looks like I can build up to a 10x20 building which would be more than enough space for my three main scopes (Celestron C8, Meade LXD-75 refractor, and my 13 inch Meade Dobsonian telescope.) Maybe a little room left over for a little "warm room" where I could sit in "comfort" while the scopes go about their business. Also I am looking into picking up a MallinCam Micro-EX video ccd camera (see the bottom of that webpage) for live video of deep sky objects so that many visitors can see more than a faint blob but instead see more of the real colors of nebulas, star clusters, and galaxies "live"!
Clear skies....please!
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