themos - Photos Feed

diy motorised focuser

themos — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:07:13

The "piano" created on the breadboard replicates the 1-2-3-4 order a total of 5 times, so a single swipe of the ground wire (the one with the blue sleeve) againtst the piano results in a large focuser movement. Of course, the proper way of doing it is to rig up a timer circuit on a separate handset so that many pulses can be generated while a "FAST" button is pressed as well as single pulses. The "piano" will do as a prototype. I need to test a webcam with this system, cloud cover predicted this week.

diy motorised focuser

themos — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:00:35

The whole kit and kaboodle loaded on the OTA. The coupling between focuser knob and stepper was made with rubber bands covered by metal "sepals" cut from old PC slot covers and tightened up with cable ties. A loop of wire holds the motor in place and a little foam pad protects the tube from scratching. Single core wire from spare Cat 6 cable rund from the motor connector to the breadboard. There's a DC power jack waiting for 12V to be plugged in.

Burgess Optical 3.2 mm eyepiece - the eye lens

themos — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 23:09:43

Burgess Optical eyepiece 3.2 mm Planetary Series

themos — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 23:01:35

Burgess Optical eyepiece box

themos — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:54:30

M31 astrometry captions

themos — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:04:35

M31

themos — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 08:05:50

Winged ants downpour

themos — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:41:07

Winged ants mating

themos — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:34:35

Rainbow

themos — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:21:12

Spica ISS Police

themos — Fri, 23 May 2008 23:08:25

Melotte 111

themos — Sat, 17 May 2008 00:07:13

The stack of 10 lights and 2 darks with DeepSkyStacker, 64 seconds, ISO 100, CHDK-hacked.

fun with crescents - 6x zoom PowerShot

themos — Wed, 07 May 2008 21:54:20

fun with crescents - 6x zoom PowerShot

themos — Wed, 07 May 2008 21:54:15

fun with crescents - 6x zoom PowerShot

themos — Wed, 07 May 2008 21:54:10

fun with crescents - afocal

themos — Wed, 07 May 2008 21:54:06

Melotte 111

themos — Wed, 07 May 2008 01:21:37

One of the light frames: PowerShot A720IS, CHDK-enabled, ISO 100, 64 seconds, on driven EQ1 mount.

Moon and Mercury 6 May 2008

themos — Wed, 07 May 2008 01:05:54

Grottes de Betharram

themos — Sun, 04 May 2008 22:03:22

an HDR composite, Pyrenees cave Betharram

Zenith

themos — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:55:07

12V adaptor for PowerShot A540

themos — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 15:12:58

This is the set (2) of 100mm mini clamps I just bought from B&Q. The top jaw is fitted with some BluTack and one of these plastic covers for philips screw heads. That's the jaw that will press down on the shutter button of my A540. The idea is to set the camera to repeat mode so that it keeps taking pictures as long as the shutter button is down. Night sky time-lapse photography should be much easier. It takes 15 seconds to expose and about 15 seconds to save the image on the internal card, so I expect a frame rate of 2 per minute. I've added a 12V adaptor (L17AR from Maplin) so that I can run the camera on external power from the Maplin 12V battery or a car cigar lighter socket. The PowerShot needs Tip-Positive external power and 3.15 Volts.

Mini clamp in place

themos — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 15:12:53

This is the set (2) of 100mm mini clamps I just bought from B&Q. The top jaw is fitted with some BluTack and one of these plastic covers for philips screw heads. That's the jaw that will press down on the shutter button of my A540. The idea is to set the camera to repeat mode so that it keeps taking pictures as long as the shutter button is down. Night sky time-lapse photography should be much easier. It takes 15 seconds to expose and about 15 seconds for the camera to take a dark frame (it happens automatically), so I expect a frame rate of 2 per minute. I've added a 12V adaptor (from Maplin) so that I can run the camera on external power from the Maplin 12V battery or a car cigar lighter socket. The PowerShot needs Tip-Positive external power and 3.15 Volts.

Mini clamp for holding down camera shutter button

themos — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 15:12:48

This is the set (2) of 100mm mini clamps I just bought from B&Q. The top jaw is fitted with some BluTack and one of these plastic covers for philips screw heads. That's the jaw that will press down on the shutter button of my A540. The idea is to set the camera to repeat mode so that it keeps taking pictures as long as the shutter button is down. Night sky time-lapse photography should be much easier. It takes 15 seconds to expose and about 15 seconds to save the image on the internal card, so I expect a frame rate of 2 per minute. I've added a 12V adaptor (from Maplin) so that I can run the camera on external power from the Maplin 12V battery or a car cigar lighter socket. The PowerShot needs Tip-Positive external power and 3.15 Volts.

ISS + Auriga

themos — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 23:04:50

ISS + Pleiades

themos — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 23:04:46