Monthly Archives: July 2022

Power*Star Pro Tips: Fault Detection

 in Blog  tagged Fault Detection / Fault handling / Faults / Power*Star / Pro Tips

One of the most valuable features of Power*Star is something you might never have to deal with, its fault detection and protection system. The first protection mechanism is the reverse polarity protection. When the input voltage is connected “backwards” (with reversed polarity) a large power transistor blocks the voltage from reaching either the internal circuitry or the connected devices. This can easily save you from a very expensive mistake, although when using the standard PowerPole connectors at both ends of the cable and a (carefully) prewired power source, there is very little chance of it ever happening. The only downside […]

More From First Star Party

 in Blog  tagged B150 / Bernard 150 / gradient removal / Rho Ophiuchi / Seahorse Nebula

Here is another image from the recent star party, the “Seahorse Nebula”, also known as Barnard 150.  It is a dark nebula, meaning that the shape is defined by a cloud of dense dust that blocks light from the stars behind it (a silhouette).  It is located in the constellation Cepheus, but I don’t know how far away it is. This was captured with a Stellarvue SVX80T with a focal reducer (for an effective focal length of 355mm and focal ration of f/4.44), and cropped a bit.  Seeing was very good for the 2 nights I captured this target.  I […]

First Star Party of 2022

 in Blog  tagged dark nebula / first star party / old school / reflection nebula / Rho Ophiuchi

Amateur astronomers in the Portland area have had to contend with bad weather for the first half of the year, but it shifted dramatically last weekend, and we were finally able to make a trip to a dark sky location.  For me it was even more special because I hadn’t done any imaging at all this year prior to this.  The object above is the Rho Ophiuchi Nebula, captured from Goldendale, WA.  I’ve shot this before, but this version is definitely better, even though I haven’t yet put a lot of effort into processing it.  I think that a bit […]