CCD-Freak

It figures the mono ASI-533 would be announced right after I sold my ASI-533MCP to get an ASI-2600MCP. Now if I want to get the complimentary mono camera it's going to cost me much more money. 8^P

Not a simple process......This isn't like collimating your Dob !!! 8^P

I watched a Soviet Proton booster re-enter and break up back in the 90's and it looked much like that so I am going with space junk.....too slow for a meteor.

I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Sir Patrick and Heather Couper at a reception hosted by the Houston Astronomical Society back in the 80s. They were friends and just happened to both be in Houston at the same time. It was most fun after Sir Patrick had a couple glasses of wine and started telling stories about the war years in the UK. My then young son was very intrigued by a pop up book Heather had written with Sir Patrick so she gave him a copy and they both signed it. It was a grand evening.

I shot it back at the Okie-Tex star party in 2013 with a SXVF-M25C through an AT8RCF but yours is better. (^8

Mine has nothing there in the way of a knob. I will have to take a closer look to see what it is for. I think it may be to give access to a screw and I think there is a cover screw in the opening if I remember correctly. I have never had to mess with it so I don't think there is much to worry about. If the axis moves freely you may need to adjust the clutch in the RA drive housing.

Very nice image of a difficult object. Great star color. This one is on my target list.

Check the "Todmorden Pier" threads here on Stargazers Lounge and Cloudy Nights. Not expensive and very solid. A car brake rotor make great pier top plates for the Neq6 mount. Here is my take on the Todmorden pier out in west Texas.

The post lady just delivered a 72mm lens hood I bought on CN to fit my Canon 50mm F.95 "Dream Lens". When I opened it I was transported back to 1976. The Spiratone lens hood looks like it has never been out of the box during the last 45 years !!!! (^8 Talk about "New Old Stock" or is it "Old New Stock" ?!?!?!?!?

I just checked with FedEx and UPS and you don't even want to think about the shipping costs !!!!! (^8

Sure.......But I don't think it will fit in the wheelbarrow. 8^P

After a three year search my buddy Robert and I found a great dark site with SQM 21.99 Sky. I call it Star Ranch Obs or SRO for short. Western Texas is fairly dry but windy at times which I like because I HATE DEW!! The site has great horizons, good road access and we have installed power and water so we can be comfortable in our Caravans. The wireless phone service is good and there is enough bandwidth for setting up an Internet hot spot. The county is just over 900 Square miles with a population of 1,640 and about a 1,000 of them live in the town of Paducah which is a little over 10 miles to the North East. Our closest neighbors are about 1.5 miles away. The downside is the site is 200 miles from home (about 4 hours drive time) but when I go I typically stay for as much as a week if the weather is agreeable. Robert recently finished his cabin and observatory and I have built temporary shelters and will be building a "barndominium" fairly soon. "But wait....there's more" ...... a research weather station of the West Texas Mesonet is on our property and we can access it for local weather data. It was a long search but I am pleased to finally have "my own dark corner of the universe" These places are out there but sometimes it takes some real effort to find them.

Thanks....I thought that looked familiar. I will put that on my list of interesting object to image. BTW....Great images despite being shot through the muck.

What object is "victim #2" Looks familiar but I can't remember a catalog number. It looks like a field I may want to image.

I should have used a UV-IR filter for that shot. I use one all the time now when shooting OSC to block IR which makes for better color. I have not had the ASI-2600MCP out yet but I am really looking forward to turning it on the sky. My CMOS cameras and more processing experience have produced my best images yet. This is my lastest project with the ASI-533MCP / SS15028HNT combo.

I was a skeptic at first too but after getting an ASI-533MCP and recently an ASI2600MCP I have been "assimilated". 8^P The newest CMOS cameras have little or no amp glow and I have never had the "green cast" using Astro Art 8. Yes you do calibration a bit differently than CCD but I don't find it any more difficult. The main thing I find is that I use shorter subs to keep from saturating the sensor and shoot way many more to get a long total integration. Processing 300 or more subs can be a bit daunting if you computer is not a "power house". Sony no longer produces CCD sensors and there are only a few suppliers of scientific grade CCDs but the prices are way above my "pay grade". Work with the new camera and figure out the things that are different and enjoy the CMOS technology. Each generation gets better.

Thanks Carole The almost Bortle 1 skies do make a great deal of difference and I feel very fortunate to have the property even though it is a 200 mile drive (each way) to get there. (^8

There have seen several images of NGC1333 posted lately so I figured I would throw mine on the pile. (^8 I got 10 hours of 2 minutes subs through a UV-IR filter using my ASI-533MCP camera. The imaging scope is a Sharpstar 150mm F2.8 Hyper Newt riding on an AP900GTO mount. I imaged this over two nights from my Star Ranch Observatory (SRO) which has almost Bortle 1 skies. I use Astro Art 8 for capture and processing. I have decided I like imaging cosmic dust....... ( shootin dirty pictures ) (^8

The average annual rainfall at SRO is 21.68" most of which comes in a "couple three" thunderstorms in the spring and early summer. We had a thunderstorm there back last spring that dropped right at 3" in just over a half hour and I was able to drive on the ground without getting stuck just 2 days later. It does not stay green there for very long. 😜

Good point. if you are on clay that will be a concern that will require some research. I am pretty lucky since my site is fairly dry and drains well. The soil is quite firm even after a heavy rain which doesn't happen often. Last month we got .06". Digging the hole was a bit of a chore. I was having to soak the ground with water to soften it so I could dig. One thing I know to do is to "bell shape" the hole at the bottom before pouring the concrete.

The pier footing should be below the frost line so that your alignment will not be disturbed by the ground "heaving". At my west Texas observing site I had to go down about 15" to get to the frost line when I installed my Todmorden pier.

This was 200 x 2 minutes subs totaling 6.6 hours taken with an ASI-533MCP with a UV-IR filter captured and processed with Astro Art 8. The SS15028HNT is a real photon sponge and my SRO ( almost Bortle 1 ) dark site really helps.

The lens shown has the pin for the iris so it is probably M42x1 "Pentax" thread so lens adapters should be no problem to find. I have one for my Canon 100D and i have no problem reaching focus with my Pentax and Sears M42x1 lenses. I have heard of the Pentor brand but I have never had one in my hands for testing. For only 5 it is worth a try and some of those "off brand" lenses can be better than expected.