UPDATED 02 September 2008 Looking through my website I came across this about me page and noticed that I had not updated it in a long while. Lots has changed and very little has changed. First off I got married in June of 2007 and moved about 60 miles to the North of where I was living. So, now instead of having a light dome to my West I now have a larger light dome to my South. Suprisingly though this light dome has not affected me as much as I had thought it would. In my current location there really is not a good spot to put up a permanent type observatory. Instead I have build an observatory out of PVC pipe, heavy duty tarps and zip ties. I will be posting some pictures of it's construction at some point. The great part is now I have a permenant set up and have been working more on getting a good polar alignment with my wedge. Still need to do more work on that and it would be nice to get a pier at some point rather than the tripod which seems to be pushed beyond it's limits with my current set up. My SAC10 Camera died and while I might be able to get it repaired, I don't know if it is worth the effort to do so. In the mean time I purchased a used Meade DSI II C camera. I had some initial troubles with it but they turned out to be more problems with software than the camera itself. During 2007, I did not image much, frustration with the SAC10 and then the DSI, what I thought to be a bad location and just generally too busy all added to that. Early summer of 2008 I got out my ETX60 while out at the coast and realized how much I missed looking at the night sky got my motivation going to get the whole imaging set up out and set up. Once that happened the need for the observatory became clear.

Not having the wide open night sky has been a blessing in disquise. I used to try and image several targets a night as each one would come over the horizon, changing targets every hour or so. Now, I have to get up at 5 AM, so I choose my targets more carefully and usually only hit one or two targets a night. Maybe a target to the S. while waiting for my primary target to clear the trees for the night. The I set up the imaging run on the primary target at around 10 PM and hit the sack for the night. When I get up at 5, the scope while slewed over to the west is still over the top of the house and on target...unless the autoguiding, clouds, dew, or any other number of things have went wrong while I slept. :) Due to this my data has gotten much better hence the processing of that data has become easier or maybe you can teach an old dog new tricks and I have gotten better at using the tools.

My current imaging set up is:
Nexstar 11 GPS sitting on a Milburn wedge atop the stock tripod.
Orion ED80 on top of that held on by Losmandy rings and rails and 3D balance system.
Guiding is done with the use of a SAC8-II through the Nexstar using PHD Guiding software, and a GPUSB.
Imaging is done with a Meade DSI II C through the ED80 using Nebulosity 2 Software and a robofocus hooked to the stock focuser.
Computer is an old Compaq 1500T with a 1.9 GHz processer 80 Gig HD. Running VNC so I can hook into it from inside the house.

What to write about me? I got my start in astronomy in the late 60's with a reflector that my Uncle gave me. I don't remeber the brand it was his and he was moving out of his parents and wanted someone to have it. I can remember my first look at the moon through it. I was instantly hooked. I don't remember exactly what happened to that telescope but, it somehow was accidentally destroyed, seems like it was something to do with a closet door and a vacumn cleaner. It really does not matter now other than the fact that I always look back on looking at the moon with it as a child.

Through the years that followed I purchased and lost or sold several other department store type telescopes never being satisfied with them or them not living up to my childhood memories of the telescope mentioned above. The last "department store" type telescoe I bought was a Polaris 114Eq Reflector. The slow motion controls on it were very stiff and any slight touch would cause the whole scope and tripod to vibrate for several minutes. My brother then bought a telescope that was a step up in quality from what I had. The slow motion controls actually worked smoothly. That coupled with my finally being at a point in my life where I could actually afford a telescope that cost more than $100 put me on the path that has lead me to writting this little about me blurb.

By day I work in the Information Technology department of an insurance company, mainly babysitting an IBM mainframe computer but also have the added responsibilty of doing all the automation programming using REXX, SQL and OPSMVS to make life easier on the operations staff. Other jobs I have had range from being an MP in the Army to being on a specialized team doing development processing of new semi-conductor parts to doing public relations work for a large marketing research company.

My current slide down the slippery telescope slope started as I stated above with my brother getting something other than your typical department store type scope. At that point I started looking seriously at what was available, in a range I could afford. I found Meade and then Celestron newsgroups, so I joined them and lurked and just watched what people had to say. After about a year doing that I had pretty much settled on getting a Celestron scope. I really wanted a Nexstar 11 GPS but, it was just out of reach of the funds I had set aside. It was then that I discovered Astromart. Through Astromart I found someone with a used 11 GPS. While I was at a class in Atlanta, Georgia, over the internet I purchased the 11 from a guy in Florida who shipped the scope to my home in Oregon.

In one night with the 11, I saw more objects than what I had seen with all my other scopes in all my life. I was sold on the goto scope and the simplicity of setting the whole thing up and getting it running. Soon though I realized that I wanted to share these sights with all my friends and family. My friends and family though did not relish staying up until all hours of the night freezing to see some faint fuzzy like I did.

I first tried modifying an off the shelf webcam. A Logitec QC3000, all I suceeded in doing with it though was destroying it. After saving a few more pennies I purchased a QC4000 and tried again. This time I did a lot better but, I don't think I got one of the lines fully severed on the board, so while I have all the wires running on it, it still would not take a long exposure. So, now I am ~$200 into this and still did not have a working long exposure webcam. I did start taking pictures with this un-modified webcam. Mostly of double stars and planetary work, but my true desire still leaned towards those faint fuzzies.

When I had been researching modifying the webcam I had come across the SAC line of cameras which were basically a retail version of a modified webcam repackaged. I also found out about narrow band imaging so, I knew that I wanted a B/W camera vs. a color camera and the SAC 8 seemed to fit the bill. By the time I had saved up the money to actually buy one of these they were the SAC 8-II. I purchased a used one of these off of Astromart. This camera was a dream come true. I could see even more things than what I could through just the telescope alone. This is not to say that the camera did not have it's problems, however I won't go into that here. As of this writing I still have and use this camera each and every time I go out and image.

Sometime after getting my SAC 8-II, SAC announced several new cameras, the SAC 8.5, SAC 9, and SAC 10. While the SAC 9 looked interesting as it was again a Monochrome camera vs a color camera, the SAC 10 had more promise of being a serious camera. There was talk of just changing the camera head and having a grey scale camera or color camera, with very little added cost. This sounded great to me. I placed an order for a SAC 10. They later announced more options for the 10 one of which sounded really intersting.

Over a year later I finally received my SAC 10, not exactly the camera I wanted as it was color and the Mono versions were still down the road some (and of this writing still have not been released even to beta testers and I have had my 10 for about a year now). So I started playing with this color camera, what I found was that I really liked the 1-shot color. It was so much easier than dealing with filters and balancing the colors myself. Some day I still want to do the narrow band stuff but for right now I am very happy with just taking nice color pictures.

The other thing I found out using the QC4000 webcam was that a Nexstar 11 GPS F/10 2800mm scope was not going to cut it for imaging a lot of the objects out there. The FOV (Field of View) on the 11 was just too narrow to capture a lot of the object I wanted to go after. It just so happened that Orion Telescopes released an Orion ED80 telescope just about the time that I was looking for a wide field telescope. I managed to pick mine up with an introductory price $100 less than normal. What a buy that turned out to be. This little scope is one giant performer.

I purchased some Losmandy rings and a dovetail bar to mount the ED-80 Piggyback on the 11. This set-up worked fine while using the SAC 8-II camera that could capture a lot of light in a 20 second exposure. The SAC 10 on the other hand when it arrived did not like those very short exposures. So along came my next purchase. It just so happened that I got to meet Ken Milburn about this time at a local star party. I got to talking to him about the wedges he made and soon after I placed an order with him. Since he lived just a couple of hours away and I wanted to take a road trip I went and picked my wedge up in person, and got to touch base with an old friend who lived a few miles from where Ken does.

That pretty much brings things up to date. Currently I have the Nexstar 11 GPS sitting on the Milburn Wedge, the ED80 piggy back on the 11 with Losmandy rings, dovetail, and counterweights. I have robofocus motors on the 11 and the 80. The SAC 8-II does most of the guiding through the 11 while the SAC 10 takes the pretty pictures through the ED80. I am able to operate all this from inside the house, so I am not freezing my rear off anymore. My next big project is to build a Skyshed Roll off Roof Observatory in the yard. I got most of the area for it cleared off this last summer, so hopfully next spring I will be able to break ground on it. After that, I would like to get a better mount to put all this on.