This website is mostly about making and modifying equipment, which reflects one of the ways I personally get so much satisfaction from astronomy. Visual observing is mainly the end goal - seeing photons from something billions of light years away land on my retinas.
The home of ScopeDog - a diy Dobsonian drive. Drives the scope with stepper motors. Has been designed with close integration with the Nexus DSC (and Pro version). Includes an optional integrated digital finder (aka 'eFinder') requiring just a camera to be plugged in.
Instructions on how to build a digital finder - eFinder, primarily for visual astronomers. It works with a Nexus DSC and uses plate-solving to sync the Nexus DSC to the actual sky RA & Dec.
An account of my quest to design and build a compact but stable 18” Dobsonian, small enough to fit in the boot of my car. Incorporates ScopeDog drive with integrated eFinder.
A basic guide to assembling an All Sky Camera to monitor the night sky, including meteor detection and logging. Uses Indigo server on a local Raspberry Pi with the AllSkEye software package running on remote PC.
A big project, but a very cost effective route to owning a large domed observatory.
Also Restoration of a historically important 100 year old telescope
I also share my thoughts on other astronomy topics - please feel free to browse!
It is vital that amateur astronomers share their skills and experiences. Some of the world’s oldest societies and journals were established to do just this.