Projects

Home

If you own an LX200 scope and a Telrad or other reflex type pointing device you can power it off of the RET jack on the base. Simply solder a 1/8" mono headphone cable (check polarity) to the device and plug it in. With the LX200 keypad you can control brightness and pulse rate of the sight. No more dead batteries.

Equipment

Photos

Mounting Pier Construction

In Canada the Telrad sight is $65.00+ while a Daisy BB gun sight is $19.99 (Canadian Tire Store). With a bit of modification, its ideal for astronomy. The sight has a smoked or tinted surface coating on the reflex lens so the projected dot can be seen during daylight. This coating makes the sight too dark to use at night. Using a fine metal polish (I used Wenol from Germany) and a soft rag, polish the lens until the anti-glare coating is removed..

Upcoming Events

This site has the full process with photos Click here

If you are bothered by street lights near your observing area and the local power utility won't help, here is a little trick using a cheap key chain laser pointer. I have tried this with success on "cobra head" type lights with independent photo detectors. The detectors are inside a windowed housing about the size and shape of a tuna can on the top of the light. Shoot the laser into the window and the light will go out for 3-5 minutes. By attaching the laser to a telescopic finder scope or rifle sight and mounting it onto a camera tripod it may be very accurately aimed. If you wire a D.C. power supply of the correct voltage and switch into the laser it becomes possible to leave it on during your entire observing session. I have shut off lights at over a kilometer using this method.