Hersey – The Suffolk Sky

11/05/2024 – More of the Heart Nebula

November 6, 2024 by Hersey

Nice clear night and the crescent Moon set early. I wanted to give the SVBONY SV193 0.8 Focal Reducer I have for the SV503 a try in the AT66ED. Wanted to see if I could get focus and if it helped flatten…

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11/02/2024 – The Heart Nebula with the SV240 Multi-Narrowband

November 3, 2024 by Hersey

A bit worried about a few clouds just before dark but it turned out to be a beautiful Moonless night. Been a few weeks since I have been able to set up and the plan was to try out the SVBONY SV240…

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The New SeeStar S30 is Available for Pre-Order…

November 1, 2024 by Hersey

The last few weeks there has been a lot of buzz in different forums about the impending release of the new SeeStar, the ZWO SeeStar S30. Last night the official details on the SeeStar S50’s little brother were finally released and the…

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Learning NINA – Gemini Focuser Autofocus Configuration

October 10, 2024 by Hersey

I picked up the Gemini Automatic Star Focuser Pro for the AT66ED so that I can change scopes between the SV503 102ED and the AT66ED without having to remove and refit the electronic focuser. I have used the focuser for a couple…

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10/08/2024 – NGC 6888 The Crescent Nebula

October 9, 2024 by Hersey

Nice clear night. Still doing a lot of tinkering and testing with the AT66ED setup. The plan was to work on getting the focus configuration dialed in and I was able to do that. Then I decided to gather a couple hours…

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10/06/2024 – Andromeda with the AT66ED

October 7, 2024 by Hersey

Forecast looked ok and it was dark and clear when I started the polar alignment routine. There was a little sliver of a waxing Crescent Moon setting in the West. I had a little trouble with the Autofocus routine in NINA. The…

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AT66ED Focus… Clouds…. Bummer :(

October 6, 2024 by Hersey

Was hoping to capture some far away light using the AT66ED setup, but the clouds moved in pretty quick after dark. The forecast earlier in the day looked OK, but it worsened as the day went on. It was pretty clear through…

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Raspberry Pi Desktop Weather Display

September 27, 2024 by Hersey

Since I am primarily using NINA on the mini-PC to control my astronomy imaging sessions I have a few Raspberry Pis which are currently idle. I still have one built up for INDI Server so I can still use KStars/Ekos if I…

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Kicks With the 66… the Astro-Tech AT66ED

September 22, 2024 by Hersey

I have had my Astro-Tech AT66ED for a good long while (I think I got it back in 2009 or so). It is a great little scope, but unfortunately it has been in the case for a couple years (pretty much since…

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Learning NINA – Lightbucket Plugin

September 16, 2024 by Hersey

This is a really neat project which is integrated directly with Nightime Imaging ‘N’ Astronomy (NINA) using a plugin. To enable this integration simply install and configure the Lightbucket plugin. Once the Lightbucket plugin configured with an API key the information about…

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