What a difference a day makes!

What a difference a day makes! It snowed overnight and snow is expected for the next couple of days .

We've had about 12 cm so far and another 12 cm may fall today.

A lesson we learned a few years ago is to drive on the roads every couple of hours to keep the roads clear. Four years ago we were stuck because the roads had too much snow. 

This is Erika's favorite time of year. She feels that everything is fresh and clean. Me, well, I think it's cold. Time to shovel...

Dry winter

It’s been an unusually warm and dry winter. Lucky and Kiley have been enjoying the woodstove in the mornings. 

In the afternoon, the doggies enjoy bathing in the warm sunlight.

While the doggies were relaxing, Erika was busy creating a log wall masterpiece. I think we need a bigger wood shed.

My goodness that’s a lot of wood! 

Erika is good with a chainsaw. She's very fast and accurate. 

I had a chance to get the second floor (guest room) rail painted. Without paint, the rail and the logs create a "too woodsy look". The painted rail provides a clean finished look that goes well with the white trim around the house.

 The floor is ready for tile and the walls have been prepared for paint. The room is large and will require 450 square meters of tile. The tile will have a high gloss finish giving the room an even larger appearance. I’ll be posting pictures in the next post. I’m still on schedule for a June 2019 completion. 

The entryway needed some color, so I made some flower arrangements. The flowers provide a nice warm touch to the entry.

       Up next…progress on the upstairs guest bedroom. Stay tuned.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  Not much snow (yet) this season. It’s been cold and the doggies have been enjoying the wood stove.

I haven’t been imaging because of the persistent jet stream. The winds up at the higher elevations (30 to 40,000 feet) have been bloating my stars (average FWHM 5.0) for the entire month of December. It’s been frustrating, but no one says that astrophotography is easy.

I’ve removed the rotator and focuser from the imaging train (back of the scope). I finally figured out that the combination was creating “sag” and some dramatic tilt in my images. This was replaced with a solid adapter (2.156”) to provide an unobstructed light path to the main and autoguider cameras. I also installed the KISS Focuser for the autoguider and the Lacerta for Lodestar Focus Aide. I’ll post an update of my results as soon as I have a clear night to run some tests.

Currently, I’m able to image unguided for 300 seconds since beefing up the imaging train. I only have a 50 point T-Point in place. I’ll be trying to improve my PA and later my tracking after I run another T-Point of 400-500 points. I read on Richard Wright’s blog (Software Bisque) that the higher number is needed to model a longer focal length rig as in my case. Hopefully, after I do this I’ll be able to image unguided for a relatively long time (600-1200 sec.). I know I’m asking for a lot since I image at 1960mm @f7, but it’s worth a try.

On another note, while I’m playing in the observatory, Erika has been working hard cutting and splitting mountains of wood. I’m very lucky to have such an understanding wife.