Ozzzy's Place Astronomy Stuff Astrophotos    The HEQ5 Project Being recognized by one's peers is always an honor. Thank you to the members of the London Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. 2007 Member of the Year

My Equipment My observing kit Everyone has their list of needs when going observing. Here's what I haul around when I'm out enjoying the wonders of the universe. My C8/HEQ5 setup The skinny on my first setup My Imaging setup Scopes and mounts part deux General observing projects My dew zapper and power bus enclosure Putting Dave's Dew Zapper (see below) into a useful enclosure. This allows me to have a single wire running to the telescope, which makes things real easy. Everything else rides with the scope as it tracks so no more wires wrapping themselves around things. For an example of a 'dual-channel' anti-dew controller see the board I built at my page on the dual-heater. My home-made anti-dew heaters Heaters that I've built for the various components on my SCT. Simple, cheap and they work. My new collimation knobs Bob's Knobs are nice, but you can make some for 1/10 the price. Controlling focusing A 'pretty' focus expander. Fine control and it looks good too. A proper counterweight Not cheap, but better than you'd get for the same money retail. My PWM motorized focus controller A variable speed motorized focuser controller that uses a 555 and a PowerFET. My 'all-in-one' control box for my CGE Heat, power, focus motor and DSLR control. My 'no circuit board' 2-speed focus controller A 2 speed motorized focuser controller that is really simple to build and works like a darn. My home-made focus motor bracket A use for the leftover Conrad motor and Synta gearbox My home-made observing flashlight A cheap two intensity red LED flashlight (also one with a dimmer) My home-made cheap observer's chair A simple take on the Denver Chair Affordable 12v power in the field Canadian Tire to the rescue; the Nautilus 33Ah Booster Pack Astrophotography projects Tripping the shutter fantastic Remote shutter cable diagrams for the Canon 300D, 350D and 400D Piggy-back camera adapter A full-motion piggy-back camera adapter that clips to a Ken's Rings guide-scope rail. Power to the people (Rajiva Upgrade package) DC/DC power supply and remote shutter circuit (add-on) for the Canon Rebel DSLR cameras Power to the people part deux (Serial/Parallel) DC/DC power supply and remote shutter circuit (add-on) for the Canon Rebel DSLR cameras Feeling the power A battery eliminator for the Canon 350/400 series. My Canon Rebel shutter releases A manual DIY shutter remote Simple and quick Simple electronic DIY shutter timer No 'smarts' but simple to build and effective A microprocessor controlled DIY shutter timer Lots of smarts, still simple to build. My home-made anti-vibration pads A simple way of keeping vibration from bouncing up and down the tripod legs My 5v power supply for a USB 2.0 hub Cable management comes to the fore My Synta HEQ5 Project It was time to retire the C8's fork mount. The Synta HEQ5 (with modifications) met all of my requirements. Read about it. The HEQ5 Project pages Page 1. The project begins Page 2. The HEQ5 arrives (description) Page 3. Setup in the field Page 4. Updates and fixes Page 5. The price Page 6. The finished mount Updated HEQ5 system schematic HEQ5 Project synopsis (pdf) My HEQ5 upgrade pages Home-made HEQ5 lower tripod brace New HEQ5 counterweight shaft Running power to heaters with the C8 on the HEQ5 Installing the Rajiva MCU update Installing the Conrad gears Smoothing out the azimuth adjustment Illuminating the polar scope Adding a 'menu' button to the Synta/Rajiva hand controller Re-building the crappy hand-controller A breakout box for serial, focus and ST-4 A Canon DSLR shutter control addon-board A breakout/heater control PCB for the Rajiva MCU A new set of azimuth adjusting knobs No more setscrews! Simple worm engagement in the RA axis. Fixing relay 'noise' and general bad engineering Attempting to fix spontaneous MCU resets New tripod legs for the HEQ5 mount My HEQ5 'howto' pages Aligning the HEQ5's polar scope with the RA axis Setting the HEQ5's polar scope's 'slide rule' Using the polar alignment scope PEC training The updated handpaddle menus Adjusting worm engagement Relubricating/adjusting the HEQ5 declination axis Relubricating/adjusting the HEQ5 RA axis Adjusting the worm gears for end float Readying the HEQ5 for cold climates My HEQ5 Linux software pages Linux configuration/control software Linux planetarium software for the EQ6/HEQ5 Miscellaneous pages HEQ5 cutaway drawing New firmware Some interesting things I'm finding Synta instruction manual (PDF format) Miscellaneous Cleaning your corrector plate Once in a while things get dirty. Here's a quick and simple way to clean things up. Dave's Dew Zapper (PDF) The schematics and theory behind a truly simple to build and useful dew-control device. Aligning a fork/wedge mounted telescope Getting things pointed in the right direction. Ozzzy's Messier List Progress As of Jan 20, 2006 I completed the Messier list; something I hadn't done in many years. Now the imaging starts. I currently have 21 items imaged with 89 remaining as of June, 2008. My list so far Images My astrophotos I recently aquired a Stellarvue Nighthawk II (80mm f/6 achromat) and a DSLR which started the ball rolling. Here is what has come out of that. The Moon's terminator My first try with the digicam in the DAR Astro adapter Jupiter A second try from my driveway Links Making your own circuit boards The toner-transfer method for making professional looking boards Equipment makers and vendors Who my gear is made by and where I buy it Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Canada's oldest and largest association of professional and amateur astronomers. London Centre - RASC The RASC centre that I belong to. The Planetary Society Just the solar system ma'am. American Association of Variable Star Observers The place to go for those stars that 'blink'. Ozzzy's astronomy scripts and other stuff Some scripts that I've written to help me find my way. DAR Astro Purveyor of the finest mirror cells, helical focusers and other neat telescope stuff on the planet. Also the person to turn to for those 'one-off' custom machining jobs that every amateur astronomer runs into once in a while. Ozzzy's other sites General Stuff. Codes and encryption, who I am and other stuff.. My Mandrake Linux Site The Mandrake/Mandriva Linux distribution; what I've learned. Ozzzy's Linux Software A DVD Shrinker for Linux with a Gtk2 front-end Copy movies and TV episodes onto standard 4.7G DVDs. A Gtk2 Personal Video Recorder for Mandrake Linux Capture TV shows from your Video for Linux TV card in DivX format. A novel Gtk2 MP3 player for Linux A 'regex' based front-end for 'mpg321', 'sox', 'ogg123' and other players to handle your music collection.