I’ve decided to move on from Twitter and focus on a type of social networking that feels remarkably familiar to Twitter in many ways but is unique in its own ways – Mastodon. Good bye Twitter, hello Fediverse So what is this mastodon, tooting and fediverse? Read on for more details! What is Mastodon? It’s an open source federated social media system based on open APIs and more importantly an Open Protocol. Federated means there is no one central authority, but the instances can all cross communicate and chat with one another through this open protocol. What does it look like? Is it like twitte ..read more

When you want to be let down, and let down fast, there is no better product on the market than Staun Tire Deflators. There is nothing worse than heading to your favorite trail or off-road park and having to spend the first 30 minutes of your limited time fiddling around with deflating your tires and other devices that only do one wheel at a time or just slowly let out air. Get right to enjoying the trail within 2-3 minutes by using these Staun Tire Deflators. Straight from the factory they’re calibrated for 18psi. I tend to run my tires right around 22-23 psi myself – a little more air than wh ..read more

If you can hear the sound of water, you can quench your thirst on the trail with the Grayl Geopress Water bottle and filtration system. I’ve carried this bottle over mountains, across deserts, through the hill country, on hikes, on kayak trips, and day trips and it has served me well. Grayl Geopress Fresh water is all important for every one of our out door activities – whether backwoods adventures or traveling to foreign cities, the Grayl Geopress affords you clean, safe and good tasting water. Mission To me, this water bottle screams “adventure” – camping, hiking, boating, or even traveling ..read more

Sitting around a smokeless fire pit in the evening, singing, or just talking to family members is the best way to relax after a long day at work. It allows you to discuss issues for many hours without complaining about the choking and irritating smoke. It will enable you to compare notes without the need to change seats now and then. One of the reasons why a traditional fire pit is no longer common in most homes is the considerable smoke that billows outwards and gets into one’s eyes when you sit around the fire. Perhaps, this is the main reason why the smokeless fire pits were invented.  ..read more

In this guide, we’ll walk you through how we use NINA with a Paramount MX+ and TheSkyX to control the mount. It is NOT required to use a Paramount mount for TheSkyX so we’ll try to cover the setup in a generic way so anyone using TheSkyX with NINA can follow along and use this amazing software combo. FYI, We’ll shorten TheSkyX to “TSX” interchangeably through this post just for brevity sake. Why use TheSkyX With NINA? I’ve been asked how or why we use TSX with NINA, and the simple answer is that TSX acting as a mount controller is extremely powerful. Much of the capability that comes with the ..read more

The Rosette Nebula is a vast cloud of dust and gas that contains the star formation NGC 2244 born from the gas in its interior a mere 500,000 years ago (Super young!). 130 light years across and 5,000 light years from earth, you need modest binoculars or telescope to be able to see & capture this amazing nebula. It’s fairly well known that Orion is the king of Astrophotography, being one of the most imaged Nebulas, however, I’d wager Rosette is a close 2nd. We’ve imaged this nebula and shared our data to show you how you can process it with an OSC Camera for Triad type filters as well as S ..read more

2,200 light-years away, the North America Nebula is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus. Rich in Hydrogen Alpha and Oxygen 3 gases, we’re able to capture its beautiful tones of red/pink (Ha) and Blue/Teal (OIII) with our Triad Filter. With a wider field telescope, you can see the shape of North America and even the Gulf of Mexico. Perhaps next season, we’ll run a mosaic here to show just how vast and beautiful this region is. It piggybacks right along the edge of the popular Pelican Nebula. North America Nebula Captured with our Telescope in B2 skies Esprit 120 w/Apex L reducer ASI ..read more

I’m proud to showcase IC 1396, the Elephant Trunk Nebula as our “first light” in our new observatory! My mind is completely blow by just how rich, detailed, and clean data is from dark skies. I knew there would be an improvement, but I didn’t know it would be this well. My heart was literally racing as I downloaded the subs and my jaw dropped to the floor when integration finished. My integrated subs with 0 processing looked better than much of my heavily processed data! Elephant Trunk Nebula Here is my first take on processing our first light! Starless Elephant Trunk As part of processing we ..read more

We’ll guide you through how to choose the best Camera for Astrophotography and explain to you some of the choices, products, brands, and technologies available. So many choices, options, cameras, and brands to choose from – our guide will focus on a few specific areas to help you make sense of the options and get started on the right foot. There are a few things you should know about astrophotography cameras before you start spending money. My first piece of advice is that the best camera to begin with, is the camera you have. If you have a Canon or Nikon DSLR, I recommend you start there. The ..read more

Some people love LP filters, others despise them. I’m sure there is a long history of filters that may have made things worse rather than better, but if you ask us, it’s time to change some opinions of LP filters and learn to enjoy them when they’re useful. Our backyard skies are rated from bortle six to bortle eight… leaning more towards Bortle 8 with some recent expansion and developments in our area. Shooting OSC or RGB color is proving to be extremely difficult – even on a new moon. Short of just admitting defeat and shooting broadband only, we decided to buy an Optolong L-PRO and give it ..read more