CCD-Freak

Wow !!! I think the HOO / LRGB is my favorite. All the versions are fantastic. Great work.

My Explore Scientific 127ED set up for some imaging fun at the Okie-Tex Star Party last week. http://www.okie-tex.com/ I captured a huge pile of image data I am starting to work on now that I am back home.

Looking forward to seeing more of your images as you get the SS15028HNT dialed in. I recently got an ASI2600MCp and I am planning to shoot several larger objects like M31 this fall. Yeah I feel lucky to have the AP900GTO mount. It is "beauty and brawn" and carries whatever I put on it with ease. It is about the best bit of kit I have ever bought.

Great work for your first light night. (^8 I love my SS15028HNT and it is very fun to image at F2.8. This is only 75 minutes of image data with an ASI533MCp

They already do that....There are batteries in the launch vehicle to power it and then they go to solar panels once they are up. No wind power though 8^P

For me it is getting an observatory and cabin built out at my dark site. Just when I get the property purchased and installed electric and water.....Bam!!!! prices for building materials have "gone through the roof" )^8 Once I get the observatory built I will start working towards getting it set up for remote operation so that I don't have to drive 200 miles to enjoy the dark sky. I enjoy being out at the site so I want to be comfortable and I also won't have as much to haul out when I go.

I remember watching the launches back in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo days and then the Shuttle era. Launch delays were the norm and some would scrub time and time again until everything checked out before they pushed the button. That is just part of the rocket biz. When they get in a hurry and listen to the pressure from the media and politicians and then take chances that is when things go BOOM!!! True.... Nasa is using Shuttle technology but the geometry of the stack is a new configuration since they don't have the mass of the orbiter hanging off the side. We just have to be patient and let then work through the issues. Once the first rocket flies safely and all goes well with the mission then I think we will see things happen at a faster rate. The development and construction phase has been a long and expensive process so I hope they don't muck it up this late in the game. My $.02

I captured this image of NGC7133, NGC7129 and open cluster NGC7142 made a nice composition. 5.5 hours of 120" subs ASI-2600MC Pro / ES 127ED/ AP900GTO Captured and processed with Astroart 8 Imaged from my Star Ranch Obs dark site near Paducah, TX (SRO) I am still working with the data to see if I can bring out the dust a bit more.

I am just north of the DFW "metro mess" in Whitesboro, TX

That is the best security....who would think there would be expensive equipment in an old chicken shed. (^8

Same thing happened to me back in 1991 for the "Big One"....We went to Mexico to a small coastal town of San Blas where we would have 6m and 45s of totality. The day started out clear but thunderstorms started building over the mountains and the cloud tops moved towards the sun. We got clouded out with less than 30 minutes to totality. )^8 We got all the secondary effects....dark at noon, the red horizon all around and the mosquitos came out and feasted on us. Later I saw a guy selling T shirts that said "I came all the way to Mexico to see some clouds turn dark". To this day I wish I had bought one. We had better luck for the 2017 Eclipse

I am finally getting around to processing some of the images I shot at SRO at the July new moon. SH2-101 The Tulip Nebula 150 x 2 minutes with the ASI-2600MCp / ED127 / AP900GTO captured and processed with Astroart 8. I want to shoot some Ha to add to this next time I am out. I am still playing with this data to see if I can give it more "pop" without messing up the size and color of the stars. I am sure there will be more versions to follow.

I have been looking at the ASI-432MM and they have not even started shipping them as yet.

WOW !!!!! That is the definition of "going deep".

Welcome from north Texas.

Welcome from a fellow Texan. What city or town do you live in? Just curious if you are close by.

It looks like a big eye !!! Great image.

I was out at my SRO dark site last week so I decided to have a go at the NGC7129 / NGC7133 / LBN497 complex. NGC7142 is in the upper left. I was imaging with my ES 127ED and ASI-2600MCP on an AP900GTO. Captured and processed with Astroart 8. Remotely controlled with a mini PC This is my first processing of the data and I am not quite ready to "stick a fork in it and call it done". I am still trying to tease out the dust a bit more.

Thanks.....I feel very lucky to have my SRO dark site with it's low end of Bortle 2 sky. I am spoiled in more ways than one.

I am eyeing the ASI432 with it's big pixels that would not be so over sampled at long focal lengths. The FOV with it on my 10"RC would fit most galaxies very nicely. I hope ZWO will consider a cooled version since Omegon already offers one.

I got my mini PC remote control system working and I gave it a good test drive early this week. I am officially spoiled now....operating my imaging setup 60 feet away while I sit in the air conditioned comfort of my caravan ( aka Moonlight Manor) with a cold BEvERage in hand. I will really enjoy this when it gets cold. ES 127EDT, AP900 mount, ASI-2600MCP camera.

I use an ASI-178MM for guiding and some EAA imaging and it works well in either roll. The ASI-290MM is also good for guiding and EAA imaging. My 2 cents

I was shooting 180 second subs and I did not notice the cooler was off until I already had most of the images saved. They looked pretty good on the screen so I let it finish and I stacked it to see how it would come out. My site is dark (Bortle 1-2) so that helped a lot but I was amazed that the image turned out as well as it did. I have done this twice and was surprised that the images were salvageable. I am planning to do some imaging with my non cooled ASI-482MC to see how it works for galaxy imaging. I plan to shoot 60 or 120 second subs dithering frequently and I plan to get at least 120 subs. It should be an interesting experiment especially since it is freaking HOT here right now. (24C for the low temperature) This screen grab image of M83 was a 180 second single exposure with the ASI-482MC binned 2x2 mono and NO dark and it is fairly clean so it gives me hope. (^8 This M78 image was shot at 22C with the ASI-2600MCP

The new cameras are getting very good......I forgot to turn on the cooling of my ASI-2600MCP and shot this image of NGC7023 at +19.5 C. 4 hours of 3 minutes subs dithered every 5th image captured and processed with Astroart 8. I am thinking of getting the ASI-432MM for imaging galaxies with longer FL scopes and I have an ASI-482MC that I plan to give a go with next time I am out imaging at the dark site.

I just downloaded the 64 bit ASCOM driver for the SS-Pro from the Orion website. StarShootASCOM100209.exe