| Converted site to Astro | 2025-07-13 | Wordpress has become increasingly resource-intensive over the years, for not much value. I have re-implemented the site using the new Astro framework. |
| M13 – Hercules Cluster | 2020-06-20 | I have a guilty pleasure: I like globular clusters. M13 is my favourite. |
| Added Colour to NGC 4565 | 2020-05-26 | First round of adding colour data to the previous NGC 4565 image. |
| Replaced observatory computer | 2020-02-25 | My old observatory PC has started becoming unstable, with sudden unexplained restarts and failures. Not bad – it’s had a good 5-year run, living permanently outdoors in the cold. |
| Flat Frame Acquisition App | 2020-02-09 | A sibling to the Dark Frame app announced below, this application orchestrates the collection of Flat Frames. It is simpler, designed to be used at the end of an imaging session when the scope and camera are already running – so it does not contain delayed start and finish logic. |
| Dark Frame Acquisition app | 2020-01-27 | To stay involved, I’ve refined that dark frame acquisition script, mentioned below, into a full application. It’s available for download, in both Mac and PC binaries, here.. |
| Start M1 with Luminance | 2019-12-29 | With the AT8 scope presently mounted, I started on M1. Mount was performing very well... |
| Dark Frame Acquisition script for TheSkyX v2.2 | 2019-11-03 | Over the last few cloudy nights, I finished an automation assistant script, and am making it available here. This is a JavaScript script to run within TheSkyX to acquire a large number of dark frames. |
| More luminance on NGC 891 | 2019-09-20 | Another clear(ish) night, more luminance data on NGC 891 gathered. |
| Start NGC 891 | 2019-09-17 | I started a new imaging portrait, with about 90 minutes of data capture before the almost-full moon rose and lit up the sky. |
| Testing unguided performance | 2019-09-17 | Sunday night I used the removable dome cover (via the PZT) to enable two automated TPoint data-collection runs. |
| Confirmed, the new RA worm is working well | 2019-09-13 | I more-or-less finished configuring Drupal to my satisfaction for now. |
| Zenith Table complete | 2019-09-13 | Except for a final coat or two of paint, the PZT (Pod Zenith Table) is complete. |
| New RA gear: looking good | 2019-09-11 | The new RA worm block is installed, and I had time for a brief test. Testing was cut short because of a sudden cloud-over, but looked pretty good. |
| Two Big Changes underway | 2019-09-05 | Two things are in progress for the observatory: new RA worm block, and PZT table |
| Rerouting cables to reduce dangle-effect | 2019-08-08 | In a continued effort to get the Periodic Error down lower (now just at spec, but can do better), I next decided to tackle the mass of dangling cables. |
| First round, new Periodic Error analysis and correction | 2019-07-05 | Continuing from last night – now that polar alignment is close, I’ll do a first pass of Periodic Error analysis. |
| Polar Alignment and TPoint model | 2019-07-02 | Clear tonight, but not dark until quite late. (Duh. That’s what I get for re-starting the observatory only a few days after Solstice.) I did new polar alignment tonight: |
| Cleaned and re-greased RA worm block | 2019-06-28 | Following the instructions ... I removed the R-A worm block, cleaned and re-greased |
| Cleaned and Re-Greased DEC worm block | 2019-06-27 | Following the instructions ... I removed the Declination worm block, cleaned and re-greased |
| Started Mount Refurb | 2019-06-25 | Yesterday I removed all the gear from the mount, and removed the mount and adjustable mounting plate from the pier – per the previous post, to lower the mount to sit directly on the pier-top adaptor and not on those 3 threaded shafts. |
| Mount adjustment: change mount-to-pier connection | 2018-04-14 | I’m using the SkyShed pier, and the supplied pier-to-adapter plate connectors, which is 4 long bolts the mount sits on, that enable leveling. Forums point out that those are a (rather obvious) possible source of flexure. |
| Tune-up journal 3: more worm adjustments | 2015-07-19 | I opened up the dome about 1 hour before dark to let things start to cool, then used that time to continue tuning the mount gears. I took the cover off both worm blocks, inspected belt tightness and pivot screw tightness. |
| Mount tune-up Journal 1: July 13 | 2015-07-18 | First step in the plan is the removal of my added-in through-mount cabling. I opened the access hatch and carefully removed... |
| Starting Mount Forensics and Maintenance | 2015-07-18 | I am so impressed with the build quality of the MX mount that I’ve been reluctant to admit that there seems to be a performance issue showing up in my data. I think I’m ready to admit that now. |
| Tune-up journal 2: 1st worm adjustments | 2015-07-18 | My plan said to start with a new, small, TPoint run to verify polar alignment. However, I decided to change that and do an initial check if the worm tension plungers are in-spec. |
| A test sketch of M81 | 2015-06-21 | After doing some calibration, a quick monochrome test run of M81, just for fun. |
| Changed scopes for summer | 2015-05-03 | Winter skies done, change from widefield to longer focal length for summer imaging. |
| PEC, Autoguiding stars, and a test image of M81/82. | 2015-04-18 | It was clear last night, quite warm, although seeing and transparency were poor. More testing and calibration, and some real progress was achieved. |
| Hmm. Guide Collimation doesn’t look like the problem. | 2015-04-16 | Another clear night – that’s 3 in a row, possibly the only time I’ve had such a chance in a decade. I spent it investigating my guider collimation problem. Badly distorted, elongated stars in Lodestar guider in WSG guider port. Imaging with an SV80S (480mm f/6 triplet refractor) I’m getting very elongated stars in my guide camera, seeing through the off-axis guider port on the QSI583WSG camera. |
| Upgraded to FocusMax v4, Guider Collimation | 2015-04-15 | Since switching to TheSkyX as my primary control application, I have tried its built-in @focus2 autofocus routine a couple of times, but I missed FocusMax, which I used to use and really liked. |
| Finished Polar Alignment, First PEC Training | 2015-04-13 | We finally had two clear nights of excellent conditions this past weekend. The sky was clear, the temperature was above freezing for the first time in months, there was no moon, and, being very early spring, there were no bugs... |
| One clear night, one pass of polar alignment | 2015-02-05 | A few days ago it was clear for one night, so I spent a couple of hours outside. At -22°C, a couple of hours was enough. After a rough polar alignment, I did a TPoint automated sampling run, gathering about 25 calibration points around the sky. |
| Long stretches of cloudy nights… | 2015-01-11 | Dark frames! With a temperature-regulated camera, one dark frame at a given temperature (and exposure) is as good as another. So I spend overcast evenings collecting dark frames... |
| Re-installing, re-assembling mount | 2014-12-29 | The updated mount arrived a couple of weeks ago, and I’m in the process of re-installing. Since everything was taken off, I’m taking this opportunity to put everything back on in the neatest fashion I can – paying more attention to cable management, etc. |
| Pier Top Panorama | 2014-11-30 | Since the new mount hasn’t arrived yet, I thought I would take this opportunity to carefully take a panoramic photo from the telescope’s perspective, with the goal of installing a custom panorama into TheSkyX... |
| Waiting for mount, re-doing pier top | 2014-11-23 | The observatory is temporarily off the air while the mount is being updated. While waiting for gear to arrive, I’ve taken the opportunity to do a long-overdue tidy-up. |
| And… WordPress done | 2014-11-17 | Converted the website from Drupal to Wordpress. It was surprisingly easy. |
| Converting EWHO to WordPress | 2014-11-09 | I’ve just spent another frustrating weekend fighting with Drupal. Version 6 was no longer compatible... |
| Converting to Drupal 7 | 2014-11-08 | I’ve been away from the observatory and this web site for almost a year for various reasons. On return, I found the web site messed up badly – changes at the ISP (PHP upgrades) were incompatible with the now-obsolete version of Drupal |
| Restarting for a new Winter season | 2013-11-24 | It’s been about 10 months since the observatory has been running, a lapse caused by some other priorities followed by a long spell of poor weather. Now I’m working through a checklist of things to get it back on the air. |
| Cold Night; Started B33 | 2012-01-16 | This is the time of year that B33 (Horse Head) is visible over the house, between the trees, so I started that for the season. |
| Changed Internet Service Providers | 2012-01-05 | Old ISP became unreliable, moved the website to a new one. |
| Informal RGB look at in-progress NGC6888 | 2011-11-06 | Here is a test RGB image of NGC6888 just to see how the partially-collected data might look together. |
| imaging/post_0089_start_m13_colour | 2011-10-08 | I was able to capture an hour of Red data for M13 under good steady skies. I thought it might be interesting to share the colour channels... |
| Starting Crescent Nebula – NGC6888 | 2011-10-08 | With a little imaging time left in the evening, I started on NGC6888, the Crescent Nebula, as it is now well positioned in my limited hole in the sky. |
| Starting M13 project | 2011-10-05 | Now, in mid-autumn, the sky has rotated to the point where M13 is well-located from my observing spot – and it’s dark earlier too. |
| M51 Aug 26, better blue, better processing | 2011-08-27 | I re-did the blue channel in 3-minute subs, getting 27 of them before the target sank below my hedge. This larger number of subs reduced the noise in the channel quite a lot (although it is still a bit noisy). |
| M51 LRGB colour, first draft | 2011-08-24 | I have gathered at least some M51 data now for 3 colour channels and luminance, and did a first combination tonight. It needs more colour data to improve the signal-to-noise ratio, especially in the Blue channel which was taken through light cloud and is very noisy. |
| Starting M101 too | 2011-07-31 | I was working on M51 data, but it eventually rotated below my hedge. I have a little time left, so decided to also start an M101 project... |
| Start of M51 | 2011-07-30 | I’ve started a multi-night project for M51. July 28 was the first chance to catch Luminance data... |
| Added some Hydrogen-Alpha to M27 | 2011-07-13 | New post-processing by mixing previously-gathered Ha data with luminance. |
| Now we’re getting somewhere | 2011-07-08 | Backing up and re-focusing on some basics has paid off. I’m quite pleased with this first result on M27. |
| Replaced Guide Camera, and Took a Step Back | 2011-07-02 | I’ve been frustrated with my guiding performance for some time, getting elongated stars and soft contrast, and decided to slow down ad tackle this. I replaced the guide camera with a Lodestar which mounts rigidly to the main camera’s guide port using a threaded C-mount. |
| Starting Spring adjustments | 2011-04-22 | My plan for tonight is to begin to track down the poor tracking and guiding performance I experienced the last couple of sessions. |
| Starting spring re-assembly | 2011-04-08 | Re-assembling the optics, I have an AT8RC 8″ Ritchey-Chretien mounted on the G11. The AT reducer/flattener was not working well – bad distortions. . . |
| Tuned Collimation of the AT8RC | 2011-04-08 | Wednesday evening I had a second chance to get outside, and tackled collimation. It was, indeed, off, and I tuned it up using CCDInspector and the QSI camera. |
| PC Cabinet Interior Heater Installed | 2011-01-22 | As mentioned in a previous blog entry, I’ve been trying to arrange that the observatory PC can remain outdoors in our frigid winter temperatures and still start reliably when I need it. The problem has been the hard drive – at sub-zero temperatures it won’t start, and the PC fails to boot. |
| -20 is quite cold, actually | 2011-01-17 | Cold night, PC wouldn't start, brrr |
| EWHO Now Has a Clear Sky Chart | 2011-01-11 | Big grin: this is so cool. Friend and fellow OAF Attilla created a Clear Sky Chart for the observatory. |
| Project: Heating Interior of PC cabinet | 2011-01-04 | I am continuing my long-term project of setting up the obervatory PC to work well in cold temperatures. I had originally tried setting the PC up with a solid-state drive, thinking the lack of moving parts would make it an excellent cold-weather PC. The cold-weather part worked fine, but the PC was unreliable booting from the solid-state drive, and I eventually gave up on that and went back to the original hard drive. |
| A cold night, and more time on NGC2403 | 2010-12-09 | Cold night, more data gathering |
| Nov 27: Several clear hours, sudden cloud. | 2010-11-27 | Saturday evening. There is snow cover on the ground now, and we had freezing rain yesterday, so it certainly feels like winter is in the process of arriving. There were snow flurries this morning, but the sky cleared up mid-afternoon and is still clear now. The temperature is -6 in the dome. |
| Adjusting G11 Worm Gear Backlash | 2010-11-12 | Adjusting backlash on the OVision upgraded G11 worm gear |
| Nov 10: More M27, start 2 new targets | 2010-11-11 | Tonight looks like a repeat of last night – the sky is clear and the CSC says excellent transparency all night. I’ve opened the dome at 7:30 PM, and am taking another 2 hours of M27 in 15-minute subs, to add to the data collected the last couple of nights. |
| Clear night: More M27 time and some other targets | 2010-11-10 | The moon has set and, with DST over but no snow cover yet, it is surprisingly dark in my back yard. |
| Improved Periodic Error and some M27 Data | 2010-11-08 | Yesterday during the day I adjusted the RA worm gear, increasing the slack to the OVision specs, hoping that will improve the Periodic Error of the mount, so tonight I am doing a PEMPRO run to get new PE data and generate a new PE Correction curve. |
| Back up after a long break | 2010-11-02 | Recalibrating and getting going after a long foreced break |
| Hmmm… I wonder if the earthquake mattered? | 2010-06-25 | An interesting thought just occured to me. We had a significant earthquake here in Ottawa this week (magnitude 5.0 for several seconds – unusually severe for Ottawa). Because of the weather, it’s been over a week since I’ve had the observatory open. Now I find myself wondering how it fared during the ‘quake. |
| Very clear night, and a quick M13 | 2010-05-17 | I finished the mount and scope tuning, re-did the PEC training, and feel generally ready to start trying the new configuration. I took a quick image of M13 to test. |
| Changing Optics and Tuning Alignment | 2010-05-11 | I’ve found the Celestron C9.25 very challenging to set up for imaging – the very long focal length was a challenge for the mount, ... |
| SCT testing and adjustment continues | 2010-04-12 | A clear night tonight, if a bit cold after recent warm days. SCT adjustment and alignment continues. |
| SCT progress: collimation, visual, reducer | 2010-04-01 | After a discouraging evening the other night, trying to do too many things at the same time, last night was more organized and more successful. |
| Started changing to SCT | 2010-03-27 | I started changing the imaging optics over to a 9.25″ SCT today (from the 80mm dual refractors). |
| Re-worked guiding now working | 2010-03-11 | After a rough polar alignment, I did a TPoint automated sampling run, gathering about 25 calibration points around the sky. This allowed TPoint to calculate polar alignment error and provide me with correction recommendations. Then it clouded over and I was near-frozen. |
| Good sky, calibration improving, guiding failed | 2010-03-10 | It was a beautiful clear day and the sky remained clear through the night, we continue to have unseasonably warm weather, and the moon rose late, so last night was an ideal evening. |
| Sunday, March 7, 2010 | 2010-03-07 | Did some pre-setup in the dome during the day, reloading drivers etc after having to re-image the observatory PC. |
| Surprise clear sky, recalibrated focuser | 2010-02-15 | It wasn’t supposed to be clear tonight (or any night for the next week) but I looked outside at about 7:00 PM to see clear sky and stars! I quickly changed my plans for the evening |
| Saturday, February 13, 2010 | 2010-02-13 | I reinstalled the CCD camera and filter wheel today, after having cleaned the camera’s CCD window. Installed a permanent observatory PC. |
| Designing a PC for Outdoor Storage | 2010-02-05 | I hope to keep a PC permanently installed in the observatory to speed setup, and avoid any more incidents where I drop and break my laptop when cold and stupid. |
| Initial Design for Outdoor PC | 2010-02-05 | My first thoughts on a PC that can work outdoors: |
| Flat Frame Illumination Panel for C9.25 | 2010-02-04 | I made a flat frame panel for the C9.25 SCT today. |
| Saturday, January 23, 2010 | 2010-01-23 | . . . checked the filters for cleanliness – they seem OK and I decided not to muck with them other than blowing dust off. Disassembled the CCD camera and found the protective window to be quite dirty |
| Saturday, January 9, 2010 | 2010-01-23 | Tonight’s plan is to gather more data for the B33 region that I started a couple of weeks ago. I still need all three RGB colours. . . |
| Comedy of Errors imaging session | 2010-01-22 | Not a very successful session – I ended up gathering a small amount of Red data, and several items for my to-do list. |
| Failed attempt to gather RGB for B33 | 2010-01-09 | The first clear night in weeks tonight, so I opened up the dome and tried to do some LRGB capture of my B33 project, despite it being very cold. Temperature was -15 when I went out and -20 when I gave up a couple of hours later. While good practice and good fresh air, the evening was a write-off for imaging. |
| Cold Night Imaging in Bright Moonlight | 2009-12-30 | With a nearly full moon, narrowband imaging was the best option since it is nearly immune to light pollution, so I set up... |
| Dew heaters & misc fiddling | 2009-12-28 | Cloudy for the last week, and forecast cloudy tonight. Went out during the day and did a bit more work in the dome, installing dew heaters on the primary scope, guide scope, and finder. |
| Test and Imaging Night Cut Short | 2009-12-12 | I had hoped to do some PEC testing, colour calibration, and trial imaging tonight. The sky cleared around 5PM, on schedule, and was supposed to stay clear until about midnight. |
| First Periodic Error Correction calibration run | 2009-12-05 | It’s finally clear out. Not really clear, not a good sky for imaging, and only a couple of days past the full moon. But there are enough stars visible to at least capture some data for periodic error testing and programming. |
| Finished wiring and general set-up | 2009-11-22 | Cloudy today but not raining. I worked in the dome much of yesterday and today, and finished the cabling of the gear – at least for now. (I suspect this is one of those chores that is never finished.) |
| More rain testing, gasket repair, and other setup | 2009-11-21 | We’ve had several days of rain, so it was a good test for the dome. I left the cover off the whole time, to evaluate the water-tightness of the structure itself. |
| Image Testing evening | 2009-11-17 | It’s clear tonight and no moon, temperature about 0 C. I used the evening to start testing out the wide-field imaging train. |
| Repaired caulking, more interior work | 2009-11-17 | There was ice on the dome this morning and frost on the deck until the sun melted it off around noon. I used the pleasant day to make some more progress on final touch-ups: |
| First rain: leak testing | 2009-11-15 | Yesterday it rained most of the day, varying between light drizzle and fairly steady rain. I spent some time inside the POD, dome closed, looking for leaks. |
| Interior work: wiring and shelving | 2009-11-15 | I bored a hole through the wood floor and installed an ABS conduit to pass an extension cord, ran a cord though, and packed the conduit with foam and a steel wool plug (deters critters). |
| First calibration evening | 2009-11-13 | It was clear tonight and won’t be for the next few nights, so it seemed wise to get some dark time when it’s available. I set up the 80mm imaging scope to start some polar alignment. |
| Completed basic assembly | 2009-11-11 | Today was a holiday, and sunny & warm (10 degrees), so I completed the basic assembly of the POD. |
| Observatory first light | 2009-11-11 | I did a quick observing session tonight, only about 90 minutes, to generally check things out. |
| The POD has arrived | 2009-11-10 | The POD arrived today, in 4 large packing boxes. |
| Got the Shipping Call! | 2009-11-06 | I have received the long-awaited call from the shipping company. The POD travels this weekend, and I should receive a specific arrival time Monday morning, with Monday afternoon or Tuesday arrival. |
| 1st snow day | 2009-11-05 | 1st snow day, a good excuse to ask SkyPod for a construction and delivery update. |
| Shipping….. | 2009-10-30 | Wayne: “US-destined PODs are shipping, Canadian PODs tomorrow”. I’m seeing if I can hold my breath 24 hours. |
| Treated the Deck with Wood Preservative | 2009-10-25 | Temp outside is 11 degrees right now, so I applied a heavy coat of Thompson’s Water Seal (which requires 10 degrees to go on). |
| Shipping Charges and Signs of Life | 2009-10-21 | Had some communications with Wayne today. The factory is running flat-out and hopefully there will be a POD with my name on it within a week. Also received and paid the shipping charge |
| Waiting. . . | 2009-10-15 | Well, the deck has been ready for a week now. Every day I go to the “check order status” section of the SkyshedPod site and learn the order is “processing”. |
| Updated Drupal to version 6.14 | 2009-10-07 | Drupal has been bugging me that there was an “important security update” to verson 6.14. I didn’t want to install this manually and waited until the web-based installer from my ISP caught up and offered the update. |
| Deck Largely Complete | 2009-10-06 | During the business day today (I was at work and missed it) the K-Deck guys did essentially the whole deck. It’s beautiful – solid, square, central pier placed exactly right. |
| Drilling for Rebar and Pouring Footings | 2009-10-05 | The team digging the deck footings is here today. Confirmed, they showed me the bedrock base the holes hit. They’ll use a concrete drill to drill into it and then drive in rebars. That’s going to be sturdy. |
| Successful Concrete Pour | 2009-10-05 | Today K-Deck successfully finished digging the footing holes, placing the sono-tubes, and pouring the concrete, including setting the J-Bolts in place with their placement form. |
| Configured some Drupal modules | 2009-10-03 | I more-or-less finished configuring Drupal to my satisfaction for now. |
| Footings Hit Bedrock | 2009-10-03 | Mike of K-Deck called. Did I notice the holes weren’t as deep as I probably expected them to be? (Yes, I did, and assumed they just weren’t finished digging yet.) They hit bedrock. |
| Creating the Observatory | 2009-10-02 | In a typical 4-hour available evening slot, the time goes largely to practicing setup, not practicing astrophotography. Time to create a permanent observatory. |
| Earwig Haven website launches | 2009-10-01 | Having launched the project to construct my backyard observatory, I thought a website dedicated to the observatory would be appropriate. |
| Set up domain with iWeb | 2009-10-01 | I registered domain Earwig Haven Observatory with iWeb – my reliable host for many other sites – and purchased the “all inclusive” package that I’m using for those other sites. Now the long and agonizing wait until DNS propagation makes the site available. |
