Exploring the Suffolk Virginia Night Sky – Astronomy, Astrophotography, Telescopes, EAA – Planets and Stars and Nebula and Galaxies – Looking, Learning, Sharing… Let's see what we can see…
Telescopes, Cameras, and other Astronomy Gear
First light and a chance to test out my sequence using the NINA mini-pc build sequencer on 5/31/2024 shooting M 94, the Cat’s Eye Galaxy. The NINA sequencer is somewhat complicated but extremely versatile. There really is a lot to this astrophotography…
I was looking to learn something new and to try out some different options for astrophotograpy imaging command and control. I have been using KStars/Ekos/INDI to control my gear for both EAA and Astrophotography session. KStars/Ekos/INDI works great but I wanted to…
I believe that any telescope can be a good telescope if you have the right expectations of it’s capabilities. I often get asked “What kind of telescope should I get?” My usual answer is get the best one you can afford for…
I have had my Sky Watcher EQ6-R Pro mount for a bit over a year now and it is a fantastic mount! Great payload capacity and solid performance with my typical guiding RMS around 1 arcsecond or less. Recently I noticed when…
The SeeStar S50 comes with everything you need to start observing in just a few minutes after opening the box, however there are a few useful accessories which are really nice to have. The SeeStar S50 accessories I recommend for your SeeStar…
GraXpert is a free opensource tool which can use Artificial Intelligence (AI) models to perform background extraction (gradient removal) and denoising (noise removal) on astrophotography images. I have been tinkering with this tool using a FITS image saved from a live stack…
The SeeStar S50 tripod is light and fairly sturdy, however even with the legs fully extended it only raises the SeeStar a little more than a foot (1′) off the ground. The SeeStar tripod will definitely be great for traveling, but I…
I have thought about picking up a SeeStar S50 a few times, it has made it into my AgenaAstro cart more than once. After seeing some of the images captured, and watching a NightSkiesNetwork.com broadcast, using the SeeStar S50 during the Solar…
The ability to adjust the date/time in a planetarium program is extremely handy when planning an observation session. What will the sky look like, or what will be visible, later tonight/2 days from now/1 week from now/etc from now at 10 PM?…
Took a few minutes to test things out to make sure all is ready for the Solar Eclipse on Monday, April 8, 2024. Some time ago I 3D printed a Solar Finder I found on Thingiverse, it worked great! I was able…