Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Eclipse Fever
My eclipse plans are now set: driving north to Millinocket, ME to setup at the Veterans Memorial Park in town. A few of my astronomer friends will be there with telescopes. I am planning to bring a newly acquired SvBony 105mm refactor that I bought used recently but haven’t had a chance to use. A…
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How I Built My Allsky Camera
I’ve had an interest in building an allsky camera for a few years now. The idea that you can photograph the entire night sky with long exposures and the software handles creating startrails, timelapse videos, keograms and more is amazing. It took a lot of research to figure out what software and parts to purchase.…
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Public Star Party at Galaxy Quest 2/18/2023
I attended the Central Maine Astronomical Society public star party at Galaxy Quest in Lincolnville. A large crowd (by our public star party standards) of a couple dozen people showed up. Jacob had his 18″ Obsession (like) dobsonian telescope rolled out of the observatory. Also was a Celestron 6″ dobsonian telescope, a smaller refractor, and…
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Public Star Party at DRA 1/21/2023
I attended the Central Maine Astronomical Society Star Party at Damariscotta River Association, now called Great Salt Bay Farm from around 7:15 until 9:30pm. A particularly cold night, though I had 3 layers of clothing on, I did not feel too cold. Conditions weren’t the best, a lot of moisture in the sky. Seeing was…
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2022 Maine State Star Party
This past weekend I attended the 2022 Maine State Star Party at Cobscook Bay State Park in Dennysville, Maine. I arrived late Friday afternoon. Weather was pretty bad, cloudy & misty which eventually turned to light rain so no observing was done. We were finally given access to camp and observe from the large field…
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So it begins.
I signed a contract last week with a local contractor to start construction of my backyard observatory. First step is having a simple gravel service road installed as well as trenching for electrical rough-in. I am planning to build a roll-off roof observatory, large enough to hold two piers and a small warming room. I…
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7/2 Star Party
Held a small public star party that only 2 friends showed up for. One of those rare summer nights in Maine with decent weather conditions. Minimal wind. Warm in the mid 60F. Only some passing clouds occasionally towards the north. Seeing was excellent; very little twinkle of the stars. I had my 10″ dob out…
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Comet Leonard
Early this morning around 3:30am I went outside and photographed C/2021 A1 (Leonard) from my driveway. I also looked at it through binoculars. Very faint fuzzy. Since I don’t have a tracking mount for my camera yet, I had to boost the ISO (ISO2000 @ 8 seconds, f/1.4 16mm) to get any appreciative detail of…
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Waining Crescent Moon
Woke up early and saw a nice Waining Crescent Moon before morning sunrise. A real treat. Photos taken with my Canon M50 mirrorless DSLR, stock 55-200mm zoom lens at 200mm @ f6.3, ISO6400, 1sec exposure.
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Early morning astrophotography from the driveway.
I woke up early this morning and went outside to cool morning with no breeze or clouds. Seeing was great. Took me a moment to get my bearings as the constellations were in different locations in the sky from when I usually observe (at night). Looked at Orion and Andromeda. Saw a couple of meteors…
Got any book recommendations?