Yesterday, made up a cable to allow me to control the movement of my telescope outside in the dome from inside. Now with the camera in use, I can view and move the scope without having to go outside other than to move the dome opening as needed. This will come in handy when I want to make a small adjustment to the FOV to center an object or to move to another object close by. Cable is a bit makeshift but if it works out as planned, will make a better version. Was using a new software for control and had some issues but contacted the developer and we had several back and forth sessions with debug tools to get him what he needed to sort it out. I was using a camera/scope mount that he didn't have a lot of experience with but got it working. The software also has a function where you take an image with your scope camera, it then compares the star locations to the known universe to give the the exact location where you're pointed, called "plate solving" and technique has been around a long time but this is integrated in to the same program used to control the scope and to take the images. Now that the camera and scope mount is working, will have to give this a try. I'm thinking it might be useful to confirm you are pointed at a really dim object before you start a long term exposure only to find out you weren't in the right place. Of course, this will depend on how easy it is to work with.
Finished my taxes, used TurboTax as usual. Will wait a week or two to file in case I get any 1099 corrections. Lucky me, I misunderstood how short term losses from previous years work so ended up being able to offset some long term gains this year that I had sent estimated tax payments to cover so will get it all back, hmmm, maybe I'll buy that cable for the telescope.
Cooked pizza in the outdoor oven, first time I fired it up in over 30 days as we had over 20" of snow and just too cold. Thought it might be a bit damp but was ready to cook in 2 hours, pizzas were good. Used a new dough recipe that had a bit of whole wheat flour and turned out well but needed to have been a little thinner. Ate pizza while watching the first two episodes of Season 6 of Doc Martin on DVD, we like this quirky show and enjoyed both of them. Only 8 episodes in the season so will have to ration them out a bit.
Up early as usual this morning, oven outside is still about 450 degrees so will cook a whole chicken later this morning for dinner during the week.