CCD-Freak

This year we seemed to be fighting everything when we took our trip to the southwest corner of New Mexico. High fuel prices, wind, bad seeing, dust....you name it. This image of NGC3628 Hamburger galaxy is the first one I have processed so far. The ASI2600MC is over sampled with the AT10RC at 2000mm so I binned the image to reduce it to a good size for posting. I had to toss quite a few subs due to bad seeing and the occasional wind gust so I ended up with 30 x 3 minutes 90 minutes total. It took lots of processing to get the final image. Sometimes you just have to do the best you can with what you get. 8^P

I agree...."just do it" (^8 It only took a few hours once I got the hole dug. The west Texas ground was hard as a rock.

That is what I did too. I put the top block on it's side to allow attaching various mount adapter plates.

My other mount is an old Celestron CI-700. It is a great mount for visual and it is also quite at home imaging as well.

My Astro Physics AP900 mount is probably the best investment I have ever made. It carries any of my OTAs with ease. (^8

This is a quick image I took the last night of my New Mexico imaging trip. This is a single 3 minute image of the super nova SN 2022hrs located in NGC4647 next to M60 made with an ASI482MC through my 10"RC. What a blast !!!!!

Yeah...I thought I had clipped the black point. I was not too careful when I processed the image. I had moonlight making the background fairly bright and I over did it. 8^P Now that I know there is some good data there I plan to process it again and pay a bit more attention to the details. The M101 image was shot at my SRO site which is almost Bortle 1 (bottom end of Bortle 2) but the weather is a bit more variable than the NM desert.

Thanks...I was a bit surprised too considering how everything was not going my way. A bunch of my imaging buddies get together down in the "boot heel" of New Mexico for a week of imaging under almost Bortle 1 desert sky. It is a fun week of visiting and imaging.

I spent several nights at SRO testing my galaxy imaging setup before heading to New Mexico. I used my AT10RCF and ASI2600MCP camera for this shot of M101. As usual everything was working against me. The Moon was up, the seeing was bad with wind and dust in the air. After I threw out bad subs I ended up with 18 x 300s (90 minutes) of exposure, captured and processed with Asto Art 8. For some reason my Flats did not correct so I had to use the gradient removal tool to correct most of the vignetting. Even with all the issues I am fairly happy with this "engineering test image". I am still working with the data.

Those pads are heavy enough I don't think you need to worry unless a tornado happens along and then some rubber mat tiles will be the least of your worries. 8^P I have some walkway pavers much like those which are made out of recycled tires and they have been out in the weather for 5+ years now and don't seem to be any worse for the wear. The main issue with the pavers is they don't interlock like the ones you have.

The brutal West Texas sun will be the main thing that might affect how long the pads will last. I am also thinking of concrete pavers but I like the idea of a softer surface if I should drop anything.

I am watching this thread with interest since I am thinking about how to floor my semi permanent SkyBox wind shelters at my dark site. The floor mat squares are one of the possible solutions I have been looking at. I guess you are the "guinea pig" in this experiment. (^8

The mount is placed high enough to see over the walls down to about 20 degrees but low enough to have the wind blocked. The 10"RC is normally not used in my 6x10x6H SkyBox but I was testing things before our trip to New Mexico at the end of April. I usually use the 6x10x6H box for smaller imaging setups like my 150mm F2.8 Hyper Newt, 8" F3.8 Newt and smaller refractors. The pier I will be putting in my 8x12x6H SkyBox will be a bit shorter to better shield larger scopes like my 10" RC and the 12" F4 Newt I picked up recently. Another reason I made the pier tall is I do some visual observing at times.

I painted the pier while at SRO this week...."Looks nice".

Great submissions so far but there must be more out there. (^8

Here is a moonlight shot of my 10"RC riding on an AP900 mount perched on the recently constructed Todmorden pier at SRO. I was doing some equipment testing before the New Mexico trip at the end of the month.

That would be great for a floor in my SkyBox wind screen. I was thinking of using concrete pavers but I think those would be better. Now I just need to find a source.

This photo shows how huge the U6 is. If memory serves me correctly it is F16

My other C8 serial # 826894 is a black tube with a ribbed back on an Ultima mount that has been "pimped out" with all sorts of upgrades. This scope is a pleasure to use.

My friend Phil has an old Tri Color C8 serial # 195 that dates back to 1971 or 1972. He is the original owner and still uses it.

I built this 12.5" F8 back in 1977 from whatever junk I had. It was painted a green color which was the only color I had on hand. It provided fantastic views. A buddy of mine called it the Hulk since it was "Big, Mean and Green" It was dismantled due to it's massive weight but I still have the mirror and I plan to build a new "planet cannon" with it.

Let's see your long focal length "planet killer" Newts. Here is my 8" F8 that I built around a $40 Edmund mirror I bought at the Texas Star Party swap meet back in the mid 90s. It puts up some fine planetary and lunar images.

My 1979 orange tube C8 is SN 1 444 9 and the motors are dated 2-79. It was one of the last ones that used the old date code.

This 6" Unitron is not mine 8^( but I get to use it sometimes. I wanted one ever since I first saw the adds in Sky & Telescope.

Twenty-Six Hundred club.....I like it (^8 I feel very fortunate to have my dark site. It took 3 years of searching to find it. I have temporary telescope shelters and electric and water for my caravan. I plan to build a permanent observatory and cabin in the near future. I have thought of becoming CMOS-Freak only if I can update my user name without having to creating a new account.