Tag: quadrant

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Data: Stellar Quadrant Observations – 5/31/19

Yesterday promised a beautiful night. Temperatures in the low 70’s falling to mid 60’s overnight, clear skies, and no moon. So I packed up the quadrant and met Hugo at Brommelsiek to do some observing.

Unfortunately, despite the skies being clear, there was a lot of humidity and spotting stars past 3rd magnitude was challenging. Hugo was only able to stay a little over an hour, but I stayed out almost 4, and only had 15 observations at the end of the night.

As usual, details below the fold. Continue reading “Data: Stellar Quadrant Observations – 5/31/19”

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Data: Stellar Quadrant Observations – 5/17/19

Last night was a full moon which meant observing would be challenging, but the weather was too nice, and we’re in the season in which it’s sufficiently rare that I’m not at an event on a given weekend, so I couldn’t pass up observing. This time I was joined by his Excellency Josef von Rothenburg and his eldest daughter Maggie. As usual, observing details below the fold. Continue reading “Data: Stellar Quadrant Observations – 5/17/19”

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Data: Stellar Quadrant Observations – 5/4/19

This year has been pretty rough for observing. With the quadrant being damaged and having to toss out a night of data in February, combined with cloudy weather in March and April, I haven’t been able to get much done.

But last night the weather cooperated and I was able to take the quadrant out, this time with the assistance of Megan doing the recording, and me doing the sighting. While I’m still not as good as Padraig, the results were fairly good and posted below the fold.

Continue reading “Data: Stellar Quadrant Observations – 5/4/19”

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Data: Stellar Quadrant Observations – 1/4/19

Last night was a nearly new moon. The temperature was uncommonly warm for this time of year1 but that didn’t end up disturbing the seeing too much as we had an exceptionally good night for observing. Combined with a rich field of stars in Taurus and Orion passing during the evening and Padraig and I had the most productive evening yet cataloging 59 stars, 16 of which were not in my original list of targets, but due to being able to see down to 5th magnitude, we were able to grab them.

Continue reading “Data: Stellar Quadrant Observations – 1/4/19”

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Data: Stellar Quadrant Observations – 12/23/18

It’s been almost three months since I’ve been able to get out and observe. It’s been a combination of assistants being sick, bad weather, bad moonphases, and starting a new job. But just before the holiday this year, we had a nice clear night. There was a near full moon, but as Padraig is planning on moving to Boston in the next year, I’m in need of someone else that wants to help. Fortunately, another member of my barony, Auga, volunteered to assist, so this night was mostly meant to get her trained on how things work and the moon was actually somewhat helpful as it made seeing what we were doing with setup and learning the instrument all the easier.

Continue reading “Data: Stellar Quadrant Observations – 12/23/18”

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Astronomiae Instauratae Mechanica

When construction initially began on my quadrant, I had little to go on except the etching of the instrument and my own knowledge of how such an instrument should work. I knew the image came from a work of Tycho Brahe’s, Astronomiae Instaurate Mechanica (Instruments for the Restoration of Astronomy), but at the time was unable to find a translation to see if there was anything I was missing.

Fortunately, a few months ago, I finally located a translation of the vast majority of the book. However, the website seemed to lack the beautiful etchings that should accompany the text. However, scans of the original work were available through the NASA ADS. Unfortunately, being scans of a book over 400 years old, not all of the images were in good condition.

Still, I have worked to piece the text back together with the images, working over the past few months to digitally clean the images, removing smudges and stains, and reproducing the text as a digital copy best matching the original format as possible.

I now provide it as a .pdf for those interested.

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Data: Stellar Quadrant Observations – 9/22/18 (Crucible at the Crossroads)

This weekend was Crucible at the Crossroads here in my home Barony of Three Rivers. I taught two classes, one on a general overview of medieval astronomy, and one introducing practical observational astronomy. In addition, it was the autumnal equinox on Saturday, so some minor adjustments were made to the quadrant to allow for solar angle observations. Lastly, I was called up in court for a few awards related to the project.

More on all of that beneath the fold. Continue reading “Data: Stellar Quadrant Observations – 9/22/18 (Crucible at the Crossroads)”

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Data: Stellar Quadrant Observations – 8/12/18 (Perseid Meteor Shower)

So far I’ve had two nights of observing with the quadrant. The first was a test run and trying to determine an organization to the logistics of observing. The second was the Mars opposition which had a nearly full moon. In both cases, the amount of actual observing was somewhat limited as a result.

As such, we’ve been waiting for a nice moon-free night to really concentrate on observations. As last night was the new moon, it seemed like a good night, and I was able to tempt a few people into helping out as it’s also very near the peak of the annual Perseid meteor shower. Continue reading “Data: Stellar Quadrant Observations – 8/12/18 (Perseid Meteor Shower)”