Tags
alt-az, astronomy, electronics, focus, Hopewell Observatory, light pollution, optical tube assembly, Optics, refractor, solar system, Telescope, Washington
Look what this little thing can do that I’ve always failed at myself, even with an entire observatory at my disposal: take decent astrophotos.

Here it is on a home made tripod, taking photos of the sun. Notice the reflective solar filter. Here are two images:

The device woke up, and after less than a minute of self’s-calibration, it pointed very accurately at the sun and focused itself perfectly. It produces a continuous feed; I even did 100 frames of a time-lapse. It’s all stored on my cell phone but I can share the photos or even live views with folks nearby.

And from night time spots here in DC and NOVA:

This can take tolerable astrophotos even when surrounded by streetlights!
.