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Questar makes a really good wedge and pier assembly, but 1) It’s over $1600, and 2) I already have an AstroTrac wedge and pier.

So, with a piece of 1/4″ thick 6061 aluminum and a little CNC mill work, the Questar and the AstroTrac are now joined.

Here’s the basic plate:

The right portion attaches to the AstroTrac wedge, and the left to the base of the Questar.

This little loop is for the AstroTrac’s polar finder scope. The three small holes will have 1/8″ diameter neodymium magnets epoxied into them for securing the polar finder.

Here it is completed and all together:

And a better view of the plate from underneath:

The scope’s center of gravity is almost perfectly over the wedge, and the polar finder is invaluable for setting up the Questar.

Taken from Acadia National Park, Maine.

The elusive green flash captured in 2006 from Key West.

As the sun gets low in the sky, its light is refracted through a thicker and thicker section of the atmosphere. Eventually, the atmosphere not only refracts the light but begins to disperse it. Redder colors towards the horizon, and greener near the sun’s top.

As the last bit of sun vanishes below the horizon, there is a fraction of a second when only the green portion is left.

For many years, the Green Flash was only observed visually and was thought to be a complimentary color after-image on the retina caused by the disappearance of the bright red sun below the horizon. Only after the invention of color photography was the Green Flash captured on film and its true nature understood.

I travelled to Dubai to cover the June 15th Total Lunar Eclipse live for SLOOH. Here is my setup on the hotel balcony.

Even though it was the wee hours of the morning, the temperature was still in the low 100’s. A nice place in general, but don’t visit there in summer. Step outside and you literally burst into flames.