Read my complete blog post on the SparkFun site here, published on Aug 15, 2019. I teach Arduino workshops at Tinkermill, our local maker space, to members from 8 years old to 80 years old. Some in my workshop are retired electrical engineers with 50 years of experience and some aren’t sure which end of a soldering iron to use. I find one of the most confusing activities for my students new to Arduinos, electronics…
Category: Blog
The Hacking Physics blog
First light at UCAO for 2019
I first began observing at the University of Colorado Alpine Observatory (UCAO) in 2013. It is an observatory, located at the Mountain Research Station about 7 miles north of Nederland, CO. Prof Alan Kiplinger is the founder and observatory director, shown here next to the Meade LX200 12-inch telescope. During 2017-2018, I was too busy to do any observing. I just started visiting the observatory again on Aug 2, 2019. By attaching my Canon D60a…
Attaching a DSLR camera to a telescope
The first step in taking astrophotographs is connecting your camera to the telescope. I have a Celestron Nexstar Evolution C6 and a Canon D60a. The telescope has a 2-inch connection at the bottom of the optical tube at prime focus. The connections between this aperture and camera is with two pieces, both available on Amazon. The first piece is what connects to the base of the telescope. This is the one I use for my…
Jango is my favorite free internet radio station
My favorite internet radio station is Jango. In addition to being able to select specific styles, and it finds selections and plays them, there are no commercials and its completely free. What is a radio station doing in my astronomy column? And why did I even list it as one of my favorite free software tools? When I am outside at night observing, with just me, my telescope and the clear night sky, what could…
PHeT Simulations from the University of Colorado, Boulder
PHeT is a collection of interactive HTML based simulations mostly for K-12 covering all aspects of science and math. You do have to register for the site, but it is free. After you register, sign-in and you can access all of these simulation tools. Most of them can be downloaded to your desktop. I’ve used a few of these in my physics classes. The visual quality it mixed, but some are very good. The best…
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Windows 10 app: Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) With APOD, I get a new astronomy picture set as the background to my desktop, updated every day. And it’s all automatic. Download the windows app from here. I love astronomy and love looking at pictures of galaxies, nebula and even planets. With this app that works in the background, my desktop background is updated to the latest picture in NASA’s Astronomy picture of the day.…
Why Arduinos?
The maker revolution today has been enabled by three important elements: The open source software revolution The introduction of very low-cost electronics by Asian suppliers available on eBay and similar sites The cultural shift in the maker community to freely share their expertise on YouTube and hobbyist sites While these enable the maker revolution, it’s the applications, the “killer apps” that drive the maker community. These are the activities that are so cool, everyone wants…