Inside Grande Pines Observatory: Top-of-the-line amateur astronomy @AlphaPhoenixChannel

Inside Grande Pines Observatory: Top-of-the-line amateur astronomy @AlphaPhoenixChannel

Uploaded October 2017 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

A look inside Grande Pines Observatory! This observatory has featured in multiple timelapses, appearing in my channel trailer, the Barn Door tracker video, and the Polaris Timelapse video, but I've never actually done a video about the observatory and all of the awesome equipment inside, so here it is! Grande Pines Observatory is operated by my dad (the astronomer). He is also the presenter in this video. I got to have fun shooting somebody else's project this time! Hope you enjoy!

The gallery of images at the end of the video were taken in this observatory, some with the old 10" f/4.0 Newtonian telescope that the telescope featured here replaced.

Music and stuff used:

I Dunno by grapes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
ccmixter.org/files/grapes/16626

Comfortable Mystery 2 - Film Noire by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100537
Artist: incompetech.com

Ether by Silent Partner
Creative Commons

Simulation of a bahtinov mask diffraction pattern when focusing
Niels Noordhoek
Creative Commons Attribution

$Inside Grande Pines Observatory: Top-of-the-line amateur astronomy A look inside Grande Pines Observatory! This observatory has featured in multiple timelapses, appearing in my channel trailer, the Barn Door tracker video, and the Polaris Timelapse video, but Ive never actually done a video about the observatory and all of the awesome equipment inside, so here it is! Grande Pines Observatory is operated by my dad (the astronomer). He is also the presenter in this video. I got to have fun shooting somebody elses project this time! Hope you enjoy! The gallery of images at the end of the video were taken in this observatory, some with the old 10 f/4.0 Newtonian telescope that the telescope featured here replaced. Music and stuff used: I Dunno by grapes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) http://ccmixter.org/files/grapes/16626 Comfortable Mystery 2 - Film Noire by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100537 Artist: http://incompetech.com/ Ether by Silent Partner Creative Commons Simulation of a bahtinov mask diffraction pattern when focusing Niels Noordhoek Creative Commons Attribution$

Introducing the Magneto-Turboencabulator

Star-Stabilized 360 Camera #perfectloop #astronomy

$A laser pointer at 2 billion fps makes the speed of light look... kinda weird Ive upgraded! It took almost a year, but today I finally get to show off a TWO billion frame per second camera! I really want to record refraction, interference, and other awesome stuff with this camera, but today Im looking into a really strange quirk of the speed of light. In a way, understanding this weird phenomenon is kind of a prerequisite for everything else I want to do with this camera - I hope you find it as interesting as I have! MANY more technical details for the curious: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAYHMTkuzdT3Zwk3UialNtxXrpkmaC_ZI bonus points to hakonjdjohnsen for advice on colormaps, R520 for a typo, and @dl33 for the top suggestion in last videos comments! Massive thanks to my top Patreon supporters! birdiesnbritts John Sosa Trustham Vladimir Shklovsky Aloysius Sparglepartz Jason Whatley Lohann Paterno Coutinho Ferreira nothings Eugene Pakhomov Glenn Willen R520 Nick F Mirko Rener Chris Connett Tyler Filla Chandler Freeman Benjamin Manns MPG Seth Reuter Danny Thomas Lucy Fur tiaz David Antoš Chris Duvarney Nick Wage John T Jack Serrino Ethan Sifferman Dit55 Ashley Hauck Scott Schlesier Steve James K Allan Adams Usama Cody and Sara Doug Strain Justin McCaskill Chapters: 0:00 Bouncing light is actually complicated! 5:35 The mirror 11:50 The optics train 13:51 The sensor 19:40 The cables? 23:02 Seeing the past Media Credits: I Dunno by grapes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license http://ccmixter.org/files/grapes/16626 Arcadia - Wonders by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Switched on Carcassi by Brian Bolger, YouTube Music license Future Freeway by Adam MacDougall Disco Knights by Quincas Moreira This Close by half.cool Gemini by half.cool Mountain by Text Me Records / Bobby Renz Local Elevator by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Meme from The Spongebob Movie$

Freezing water sounds like a special effect #shorts

$20 DIY Surfboard Bike Trailer

Physics of Hiking

The $5 PVC DIY Sled

Dalek Door

Flying playing card through smoke in slow motion

$Five years in 49 minutes Ive had piles and piles of questions about the research that I did in gradschool, so here it is! Be careful what you wish for... About a year ago I defended my dissertation from UCSB in Materials, exploring, among other things, growth of a semiconductor called lead selenide, a narrow-gap material with a bright (ba-dum-tss) future in the realm of infrared optoelectronics. I hope you enjoy! For more information than you could ever reasonably desire: https://escholarship.org/content/qt9mj491xk/qt9mj491xk.pdf Viewers of the channel are probably going to be most interested in all the fun machines featured in chapter 2, Experimental Methods - Molecular beam epitaxy (making crystals in ultra high vacuum) - X-ray diffraction (explained with almost no math) - Electron microscopy (many variants) Music in this video: I Dunno by grapes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) http://ccmixter.org/files/grapes/16626$

I made a machine to un-mix fluids

Inside Grande Pines Observatory: Top-of-the-line amateur astronomy