This post from January 2025 got hung up somewhere in the space-time chaos that lurks in my computers.

The mount arrived on 24 February ‘25, in a very undistinguished cardboard box.

Its trip had been somewhat adventuresome: several days traveling through China and various warehouses, finally arriving in Hong Kong and then taking flight to its ultimate destination near Toronto, with a stop in Chicago while FedEx dunned me for Canadian sales taxes. I was a little confused, not so much by the tax collection as by the location from which the demand came, and had to confirm it wasn’t a scam. The details checked out though, and I paid up, and in acknowledgment FedEx told me delivery would be on the following day. I made sure to be home, but my preparation was in vain. At 8 pm I gave up, with FedEx still insisting it would delivered on time. Finally at 9.30 or so the message changed: the package was in Memphis, Tennessee, and “sorry, it’s a bad weather problem.” It sat in Memphis for most of the weekend before suddenly showing up in Cheektowaga, N.Y., finally being delivered to the GTA (Ontario) in mid-afternoon.

So there it was in its unprepossessing little cardboard box. Naturally I cut through the tapes immediately, revealing bubble wrap and a little expended foam padding, which seemed to have done a good enough job of protecting the vaguely visible contents. Stripping that layer away revealed a USB cable and a counterweight bar.

The only real problem I had was the counterweight bar didn’t fit the mount. It’s supposed to have an M12 screw, but it was too tight. The weird thing was an actual M12 screw fit with no problems, and the counterweight bar screwed just fine into an M12 nut. Things which are equal to each other should be interchangeable, but in this case, not so. I sent a message off to the vendor, and they quickly replaced the bar. Same problem, but much less so, and I was ultimately able to screw the new bar into place.

All that rather killed my momentum, but I moved to setting the mount up on a TC-40 tripod and checking out the hand control. No problems encountered so far, though politics down in the excited states is distracting (I expect a depressing four years ahead with a demented [criminal, rapist, and possible paedophile] President in charge).

Coming up on four weeks after bruising my fibia on a stool, and I’m getting to the point where I can walk for a few minutes without much of a limp. Five minutes is fine, but 10 triggers the need to get my leg up until the feeling of painful pressure goes away. After that I’m good to go again, but I find it easier to alternate intervals of rest and motion every five minutes. I’m slower, but still functional, and I keep telling myself that I’m a little better every day. I’m only slightly convinced.

Sitting down mostly works, so I get everything ready in fits and starts, then work for a while at a minor project. So far I’ve managed to get much more of the SQA 130 set up, but I can’t stagger jauntily over to the observatory with it, and the weather (hot) and the forest fire smoke (excessive) have not been helping. Once it’s assembled it’s a little heavier than expected, so the final set up and alignment will have to wait until my recovery is more advanced.

I’ve started on a side project which should be a little easier to handle. I ordered a ToupTek GS-250 scope a while back. It’s nominally a guide scope at 50mm aperture and f/5, with better optics than you might expect from a guide scope, and a rack & pinion focuser which can handle an EAF (there’s a Crawford Focuser option, but the R&P is supposed to be better with the EAF and the price is the same for either option). The optical spec is the same as for a SeeStar S50., so I’m going to team it up with a Player One Neptune one-shot color camera, stick it on a Juwei 17 mount, and see how the combo stacks up against the SeeStar. Let’s hope the wildfires cooperate!

Finally, I’ve ordered an MLAstro SAL-33, with delivery approaching, and i expect to mount the SQA 130 on it and get away from city lights again. I was hoping to be able to give the full assembly first light at Starfest this year, but I’m not considering risking my still-wobbly footing on the slightly uneven ground there, so unless things improve on that front I’ll be breaking a figurative champagne bottle at the cottage observatory instead.

Speaking of which, the latest dark sky assessment seems to have raised the Bortle level at my cottage from 2 to 3, so I may have to look around for a darker site for occasional expeditions around Georgian Bay. There’s a summer ferry which goes further north from Tobermory (to Manitoulin Island) and Manitoulin Eco & Dark Sky Preserve (formerly Gordon’s Park) looks promising on the island. On the Bruce/Saugeen Peninsula itself the Singing Sands may be an option, though it’s nominally a day-use location only (i.e., closed at night, probably at sunset). In all of these locations, parking fees (and possibly others for overnight) apply.

But for now, my weekend’s shot, I suppose. I’m not going anywhere!

I bought some new equipment and traded in some old telescopes in February. Naturally, this angered the telescope gods, and the weather has been mediocre ever since.

I’m hoping the arrival of spring has signalled an end to the curse, because I haven’t had much luck getting a decent test of anything new. I may have jinxed that already though….

Today I picked up a QHYCCD MiniCam8 mono camera which I had ordered at the beginning of the year. The forecast looks decent, and if it holds true I’ll catch a few hours of M63, the Sunflower Galaxy. Eventually I want to accumulate about 20-24 hours of LRGBHα, so it’ll be a multi-night project from deep in the city glow, and tonight’s run might turn out to be a short test of the concept. If the city approach looks viable, I’ll try a more-or-less matching multi-night run from the Saugeen (Bruce) Peninsula for comparison, but with a newer version of the C9.25 I have in the city. I’ll try this even if the city run doesn’t work though. The newer scope has both a better (automatic) focuser and improved optics, so apart from the better sky on the Peninsula I’m hoping for an improved work routine. So far short runs haven’t been satisfying except on bright objects, and I want to dig deeper into the sky.

Things could get interesting though. Apart from the new mono camera it’ll be the first time shooting with the StellaVita controller, the first time shooting in broadband (LRGB filters) / narrowband (the Hα filter) rather than OSC, and (possibly) the first time with a new mount on the Peninsula (may be trialing a Juwei 17 instead of the AZEQ6), not to mention this would be the opening run for this year on the Peninsula. There’s lots of opportunity for glitches in there!

If all does go well I’ll eventually report on the Wanderer Power Box Pro v.3, a couple of small scopes (Frontier Optics Draco 62, EvoGuide50), the Stella Vita controller, and possibly my RASA8, which has been languishing while I grapple with the ridiculously small back-focus distance.

On that score I’d like to know if it was impossible to extend the back-focus on the RASA8. It sits at 27mm, and with the standard camera back-focus eating up 17.5mm, I’m left with 9.5mm to squeeze in a filter drawer. That boat doesn’t really float, since 10mm seems to be the normal optical depth for a filter drawer and filter from Starizona. There is also a possible solution from an Italian vendor (Artesky), but I may have get in touch directly rather than through a local dealer, and finally there might be a way to modify the camera to reduce its back-focus by about 5mm—but that apparently means I can’t adjust for corner distortions. Ugh.

Wish me luck!

Sadly, the weather did not turn out as hoped. I monitored conditions until some time after 1 am, but the skies continued to be murky, and I slept for a while. A quick check around 4am showed apparently clear skies, but by then I judged it to be too late: astronomical twilight starts about 4:30 am.

I’m about to embark on a new adventure.

I recently purchased a small scope for wide-field astrophotography, a Founder Optics Draco 62. I’m going to set it up on a Juwei 17 mount which in turn will sit on an Innorel RT90C tripod. I’ll need a pier extension to lift the scope out of the way of the tripod legs, but I have yet to decide on the specific extension – probably something from Alibaba. I expect the default imaging camera will be a QHY miniCAM 8 mono combo unit (currently on order) but I’ll swap other cameras in and out as I go, trying to find the best fit for wide-field with this scope.

I’ll try to report back as I learn more about the mount, the camera, and the scope itself. From time to time I will swap the small scope out for another larger refractor such as the ES152CF or possibly my SCT, a Celestron 9¼ Edge HD scope. The larger scopes might stretch the weight limits of the Juwei 17, and in any case will have to wait for the pier extension.

So far this year hasn’t been astronomy friendly, and there’s little good news in view: it’ll be either cold (i.e. below about -10°C*) or cloudy according to the long range forecasts, and I’ll be staying in the city for the next couple of months, so even if conditions improve I’ll be imaging in Bortle 8-9 skies. My daughter snapped a shot of my observatory when she was up at the cottage the day after a snowfall (see below), and it’s my justification for staying home:

*I’m an old man: I try to stay indoors when it gets below freezing, and -10º is about my limit for outdoor activity, even bundled up. The equipment is generally more sturdy.

I have a cottage which sits halfway up the Bruce (or Saugeen) Peninsula, between Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. When the sun sets after a cloudy day it gets very dark. On clear nights If the moon is up and you’re out from under the trees you’ll probably be able to navigate, and even on a moonless night the stars will probably give enough light to avoid potholes and rocks, but in the shadow of the trees you’ll be in trouble. You’d do well to carry a flashlight. As you might imagine, it’s great place to have a telescope.

There are a couple of problems with that which I had not fully considered when I bought the property. First, it’s between two very large bodies of water. That means if the wind passes over in either direction it’s likely to pick up moisture, so dew/frost is a problem throughout the year, along with “lake effect” snowfalls in winter.

The snowfalls affect access in winter because the cottage itself is over 100 meters from the road. Access is a further problem because in three seasons the property is at least three hours drive away from my urban home, and longer in winter due to snow and—dare I say it—battery depletion when temperatures are low, which can force me to stop and charge for a half-hour or so in order to complete the trip. On one occasion the roads were closed due to the amount of snow, and that’s not uncommon.

Hello. My name is Peter and … I’m an amateur astronomer.