Category Archives: Amateur Science

Barn Door Star Tracker

Posted on October 21, 2018 by

I wanted to take some star pictures with my DSLR and decided a barn door style star tracker would be a fun project to build. Early versions were nothing more than two boards connected by a hinge with a screw … Continue reading →

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UVA UVB Sensor

Posted on March 1, 2018 by

I have a commercial UV Index sensor running but I found an IC sensor chip that would measure UVA and UVB separately and thought it would be interesting to see how the two UV bands varied with respect to each … Continue reading →

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IoT Rain Gauge

Posted on February 2, 2018 by

On thing that is missing from my weather station is automatic reporting of rain fall. I have a manually read CoCoRaHS rain gauge which is more accurate than say a tipping bucket gauge but I thought it would be nice … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternate Energy, Amateur Science, DIY, Electronics, environmental monotoring, Nature, Software | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Eclipse 2017

Posted on August 22, 2017 by

I was not up to driving over a 100 miles in hope of finding clear sky in the path of eclipse totality. So I decided to make the most of what could be observed at home where we had about … Continue reading →

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Fan Aspirated Temperature Sensor

Posted on November 23, 2015 by

The temperature sensor for my weather station is a commercial wireless temperature/humidity sensor that I have mounted in a commercial solar radiation shield. It has been in operation for a couple of years and seems to be reasonably accurate. The … Continue reading →

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Wren Trouble

Posted on July 18, 2014 by

This morning I went out to change the bucket on my digger. It has two buckets, one narrow one for trenching and a wider one for moving dirt. There was a tiny bird sitting on the digger arm cussing me … Continue reading →

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Sky Temperature Sensor

Posted on December 15, 2013 by

The first sensor to go on my instrument platform may be an infrared sky temperature sensor. The sky temperature can be used to determine if the sky is clear or cloudy and when the sky is clear the temperature is … Continue reading →

Posted in Amateur Science, DIY, Electronics, environmental monotoring, Imbedded Software, Software