DeepskyWim

On August 30, 2023 we installed an ASA AZ800 telescope in the observatory at work, at the  Institute of Astronomy  of KU Leuven .  The telescope will be one of the telescopes of the MARVEL project, an array of four telescope we will install on the Roque de los Muchachos in La Palma,  It was a very rainy day, but we managed to put the telescope in the observatory.  Enjoy some of the pictures! The upper part of the telescope in the corridor. The lower part of the telescope ready for lifting up. The lower part of the telescope going up. The lower part of the telescope entering the dome. The upper part of the telescope entering the dome. The installed telescope.

August 9: Testing the eFinder August 9 was (finally) a clear night in Belgium.  During our holidays to Italy,  I did not take my telescope, because there is a lot of light pollution at the locations we visited.   I started observing at 23:30 and finished around 1:30.  The temperature dropped from 12.7°C  to 10.7°C, while the humidity increased from 85% to 92%.  The night was quite humid, but the dew control was working without problems.  The SQM was 20.28, which is a decent value for our garden. Since September last year, I am building a eFinder (see AstroKeith's pages , GitHub ).  I am preparing a separate blog post on the eFinder later this year (or the beginning of next year), but I need to do some extra tests firsts.  This observing session was used to do a lot of tests with the eFinder.   The eFinder is a small RaspBerry Pi computer, with an ZWO ASI camera attached to it. A small handpad is used as user interface (a VNC connection to the RaspBerry Pi is also possible).  The