Issue 601: A ZWO SeeStar Comes to Chaos Manor South
Uncle Rod's Astro Blog
by Rod Mollise
1M ago
  Wow, just wow, muchachos… Now, admittedly I’ve turned into something of an astronomical Luddite who is easily impressed by modern technology. Hell, I’d still be using NexRemote if they’d update it to a version that would take advantage of all the features of my 10-year-old Celestron Advanced VX mount. What’s an ASAIR? What’s plate-solving? What sort of witchery is all that? If I didn’t write the occasional Sky & Telescope Test Report, I’d be even further behind. For example, all y’all know about plate-solving. Been around for years I reckon. But I was recently gob-smacked in the co ..read more
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Issue 600: Smartscope Revolution?
Uncle Rod's Astro Blog
by Rod Mollise
2M ago
  ZWO SeeStar S50 Issue 600, muchachos?! If somebody had told me 18 years ago that the Little Old AstroBlog from Chaos Manor South would still be around and going strong in 2024, I’d have laughed. Actually, it goes back even farther than that, to almost 25 years ago and AOL’s old blogspace. No, it’s not quite what it was in the go-go days of the amateur astronomy explosion of the 1990s and early 2000s, but, yeah, here we still are more or less... Not long after I retired, I found for various reasons I had to back off the weekly blog releases I’d done for years and years. For a wh ..read more
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Issue 599: A Chaos Manor South Merry Christmas 2023
Uncle Rod's Astro Blog
by Rod Mollise
3M ago
  “What in the hail are you goin’ on about now, Unk? Ever’body knows you and Miss Dorothy decamped from the Old Manse to the suburbs almost a decade ago!”  Yes and no, Skeeter, yes and no.” I have come to realize Chaos Manor South is more a state of mind than a place, no matter how much I sometimes miss that place itself and those grand old Christmases of yore on Selma St. Yeah, muchachos, those exciting Yule eves sporting a giant tree crowded by presents and a house of little ones unable to sleep. And me sitting, a season of furious preparations done, watching for a glimpse of that ..read more
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Issue 598: When is a Star Party Not a Star Party? Redux…
Uncle Rod's Astro Blog
by Rod Mollise
4M ago
  The answer is still the same as it was many a year ago, muchachos: “Never!” I almost always have a great time at an astronomy event, even when I don’t see much—or anything at all. It’s nice to hang out with friends, look at other folks’ astro-gear, yadda-yadda-yadda. But for all that, there is, as I have also said before, one big reason I go to a star party that trumps all:  To see the deep sky. Alas, that is the one thing that was in short supply at the just completed 41st annual Deep South Star Gaze (née, Deep South Regional Star Gaze). The extended forecasts for the event’s loc ..read more
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Issue 597: The Big Eclipse
Uncle Rod's Astro Blog
by Rod Mollise
5M ago
  Well, in a small way, muchachos. Not that it wasn’t a fairly big deal, but it hadn’t assumed much prominence in my reckonings in the days before the event. Saturday morning’s annular eclipse had been somewhat on your ol’ Uncle’s mind, of course. How could it not be? Every weatherman, local and national, had been talking about little else for the last week. And yet, and yet…  I felt unmoved. Yes, it would be a fairly deep eclipse, around 75% of Sol’s face would be covered by Miss Hecate in the environs of Possum Swamp…but…yeah, just another partial eclipse. Anyhoo, Eclipse morning ..read more
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Issue 596: My Favorite Star Parties
Uncle Rod's Astro Blog
by Rod Mollise
6M ago
  Miss Dorothy and Friend, 1994... This one was intended to recount my efforts taking my traditional yearly astrophoto of the Great Globular, M13 in Hercules, y’all. That didn’t happen. It wasn’t weather that prevented it, but equipment snafus.  You’ll learn more about that in the near future, muchachos. But as you know, sometime back I swore I would not let a month pass without a fresh article for the Little Old Blog from Possum Swamp. What did I start thinking about as I was pondering what to write about here? Star parties. Why? Well it is definitely and obviously the fall ..read more
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Issue 595: A New Way to Autostar Part II
Uncle Rod's Astro Blog
by Rod Mollise
7M ago
  Well, muchachos, don’t ever say your old Uncle doesn’t love you. It was hot—90F well after sunset—it was humid. There was a bad something brewing out in the Gulf. Nevertheless, I did not shy from the accomplishment of my goals. I wanted to get out and finish testing Digital Optica’s new Bluetooth module for the Meade Autostar. Secondly, I have resolved not to let a single month go by without an update to this here old blog, so I had to do something so I could write about something. So it was on one recent passable, though far from good, evening I got my ETX125PE, Miss Charity Hope Vale ..read more
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Issue #595: Telescopes I Have Known
Uncle Rod's Astro Blog
by Rod Mollise
8M ago
  Well, Doggonit, Muchachos. I very much wanted to finish up my review of the Digital Optica Bluetooth Adapter for Autostar. I intended to, as a matter of fact. I even set Charity Hope Valentine’s (for newcomers, Charity is a Meade ETX125PE) tripod up in the backyard. Not only was I gonna check-out the Bluetooth widget with Stellarium and other programs, I was gonna do a mini tour of the late spring sky. Yeah, I know it’s not spring anymore. Of late, Unk sometimes don’t know what day it is, but he still (usually) knows what season it is. Although spring 2023 is but a memory, and even sum ..read more
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Issue 593: The Astronomer Looks at 70
Uncle Rod's Astro Blog
by Rod Mollise
9M ago
  Mother, mother ocean, I have heard you call, Wanted to sail upon your waters since I was three feet tall. You've seen it all, you've seen it all.   I have been drunk now for over two weeks, I passed out and I rallied and I sprung a few leaks, But I've got to stop wishin', Got to go fishin', I'm down to rock bottom again. Just a few friends, just a few friends. —Jimmy Buffet I did this ten years ago on my birthday, muchachos, took stock of me and that avocation, amateur astronomy, I’ve loved so well over the years. Why am I doing it again? 60 just didn’t feel that momentous, not ..read more
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Issue 592: “A New Way to Autostar” or “Sweet Charity Combs the Tresses of Berenice” Part I
Uncle Rod's Astro Blog
by Rod Mollise
10M ago
  Well, muchachos, as is frequently the case of late, this is not what I intended this installment of the Li’l Ol’ AstroBlog from Possum Swamp to be about. What I had in mind was—never mind; I’ll surprise y’all another time. Anyhoo, what changed things was a delivery from the USPS. It ain’t like the good old days at Chaos Manor South, where whatever was small enough dropped through the mail slot in the front door with a ker-plop. I have to walk out to a standard suburban mailbox on the freaking curb now. One afternoon, I moseyed out there and found a fat envelope among the junk mail and ..read more
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