Astrophotography diary · Ryan Clinton

Astrophotography diary · Ryan Clintonhttps://ryanclinton.uk/astrophotography/2026-10-18T12:00:00ZRyan ClintonA new corner of the garden, and the first night I slept throughhttps://ryanclinton.uk/astrophotography/2026-10-18-asleep-at-the-telescope/2026-10-18T12:00:00Z

A fight with focus, polar alignment with a broken bolt, the Andromeda patrol, a stalling motor that left the telescope staring at the house, and then the first night the telescope carried on by itself while I slept: Triangulum, M37, the Crab Nebula and Bode's Galaxy.

Mapping the garden, and finding homehttps://ryanclinton.uk/astrophotography/2026-10-17-mapping-the-garden/2026-10-17T12:00:00Z

The telescope measured my garden's skyline by itself before dark, the true home position turned out to be ten degrees from where I had been setting it, Tabby's star got its first night, and then the camera started misbehaving and a neighbour's bonfire finished the night.

The focuser focuses itself, and the Triangulum Galaxy through a gap in the cloudhttps://ryanclinton.uk/astrophotography/2026-10-15-triangulum/2026-10-15T12:00:00Z

First night with the motor focuser doing the work, polar alignment from 8 degrees out to 0.3, a start on the North America Nebula, then haze, and the Triangulum Galaxy after midnight.

Andromeda from both sides of the sky, the Pleiades and Saturnhttps://ryanclinton.uk/astrophotography/2026-10-13-andromeda-both-sides/2026-10-13T12:00:00Z

The polar alignment I thought was 0.2 degrees was really 3, the camera's short exposures got fixed, and an hour and a half of Andromeda came out of two runs stitched across the meridian.

A motor focuser for £30https://ryanclinton.uk/astrophotography/2026-10-12-motor-focuser/2026-10-12T12:00:00Z

A small stepper motor, an Arduino Nano and a printed bracket now turn the focuser from the laptop. Getting the shafts in line was the hard part.

Polar alignment, Andromeda, and half an hour pointed at a treehttps://ryanclinton.uk/astrophotography/2026-10-06-andromeda/2026-10-06T12:00:00Z

The polar axis went from six degrees out to 0.2, the Andromeda Galaxy filled the frame, and then the motors quietly stopped.

First light: the Ring and the Dumbbellhttps://ryanclinton.uk/astrophotography/2026-10-03-first-light/2026-10-03T12:00:00Z

The telescope's first evening out, a knock against its own handset, and two planetary nebulae before midnight.

Claude, you are hooked up to a telescopehttps://ryanclinton.uk/astrophotography/2026-10-03-claude-hooked-up-to-a-telescope/2026-10-03T12:00:00Z

I bought a motorised mount, put a laptop outside beside it and told an AI to drive it. By midnight it had found the Ring Nebula.