{"id":2,"date":"2009-03-07T16:19:45","date_gmt":"2009-03-07T22:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thehublink.com\/wdprss\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2012-05-15T18:10:52","modified_gmt":"2012-05-15T23:10:52","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.astronomymark.com\/?page_id=2","title":{"rendered":"Wurst"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n\n
\"wurstobservatory1\"<\/td>\nThe Wurst Observatory is so named because it is the worst location I could possibly find for my primary site: in the street at the end of my driveway–smack in the middle of a large light-polluted urban area. Fortunately, my driveway ends in a half of a cul-de-sac that gives me a little protection from traffic. I pull my van beside my scope to provide further protection from traffic and a partial screen from my neighbor’s flood lights.\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n\"wurstsatview1\"<\/td>\nLocated in south Texas, the Wurst Observatory affords me a view of the sky at one of the lowest latitudes in the continental United States. Since many of the coolest astrophotographical targets are in the southern sky, this is a good thing. Another good thing about my location is that I’m merely a couple hours drive from some very dark skies. The blanket of city lights that covers this area quickly runs out as one travels west. If I’m really up for a trip, a 7 hour drive will get me to the pristine skies of the Davis Mountains and the McDonald Observatory.\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n\"wurstaerialview3\"<\/td>\nI envy the neighbors across the street, whose homes abutt a large undeveloped area. Theoretically, this would give me a little break from skyglow, except that so many of my neighbors are apparently terrified of darkness and expend many kilowatts to banish all vestiages of it from our environs.\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n\"wurststreetview\"<\/td>\nBy day, the Wurst Observatory appears to be invisible, even to the Google car. All the equipment is stored in my garage.\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n\"wurstgroundview\"<\/td>\nWhat makes the observatory workable for astrophotography is my system for easily setting up my equipment while retaining my polar alignment. My scope is on a three wheel cart with leveling bolts, that fit precisely into mounting plates that I fabricated and mounted in the street. I can usually set up and be ready to shoot in 15 minutes.\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Wurst Observatory is so named because it is the worst location I could possibly find for my primary site: in the street at the end of my driveway–smack in the middle of a large light-polluted urban area. Fortunately, my driveway ends in a half of a cul-de-sac that gives me a little protection from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.astronomymark.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.astronomymark.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.astronomymark.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.astronomymark.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.astronomymark.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"http:\/\/www.astronomymark.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49,"href":"http:\/\/www.astronomymark.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions\/49"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.astronomymark.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}