Welcome to this website about my hobby of amateur astronomy. My main interest is astrophotography from my suburban backyard in central NC. I hope you enjoy exploring my site, and please feel free to contact me with questions or comments.
Latest News
07/29/2018
I decided to give my poor neglected website some attention! I made a new image gallery which is something I'd been meaning to do for a long time. I added some features like showing the latest images automatically and also showing ALL the images I've ever taken. It is over 700 images of DSOs and planets!
I still plan on keeping my Astrobin gallery as well for my better images.
I've been going at this now for over 15 years. When I look back it has been pretty amazing to see how the technology has evolved. Also just to think of all the places I've gone to seek beautiful clear skies. And of course all the people I've met who share my joy of imaging.
09/12/2016
The weather has been keeping me from doing alot of imaging but I do have some new images up - check out this gallery. Also - I am on astrobin now - I only post my "best" images there - here is the link.
Just got back from the Almost Heaven Star Party in West Virginia. Always alot of fun there - it is up in the mountains so it was cool during the day. Got two good nights and some data which I procesed and posted on astrobin.
Check out the November issue of Sky and Telescope - See if you can find one of my images! Hint - page 59.
01/31/2016
I had a pretty hectic 2015 and didn't really do to much astronomy until the Fall. I have added some new images to my gallery in the past couple of months however. I've mostly been focusing on using my smaller scopes to do narrowband imaging from home. In addition I've been tinkering with a 6 inch RC scope I acquired awhile ago - it gives me more focal length than the small refractors but still will not overload my mount. I have also gotten back into lunar imaging with a new ASI120MM camera I recently acquired. I am excited about imaging Jupiter and Mars in the coming months as well.
02/23/2015
I've uploaded an article discussing an ASCOM compatible focuser controller I made recently using an Arduino.
02/20/2015
I'm working on a new object - LDN1622. It is an interesting object which is near M78. Here is an image showing two nights of progress.
02/15/2015
Stayed up late and had some luck with good seeing and got an image of Jupiter with my 8 inch f/5 Newtonian and an old webcam.
02/12/2015
Uploaded a version of the ArduinoDSC code that is compatible with Arduino IDE 1.0.5. I haven't tested it on any versions newer than this. There was a problem with the old code on the 1.x IDEs. Check out my ArduinoDSC project.
02/05/2015
Took an image of M42 with the AT6RC - I'm starting to like this scope. Got to mess with HDR data combination in Pixinsight - very slick tool. Also imaged Jupiter and the Moon with a Philips webcam and the AT6RC. Seeing was average at best.
02/04/2015
I've had this website for over 11 years now! I've wandered in and out of the imaging hobby over this time. The past few months I've slowly ramped up my imaging efforts. I've acquired some new scopes (an Astro-Tech 6 inch Newtonian as well as a Astro-Tech 6 inch RC) as well as upgrading some old equipment (new Moonlite focuser for WO66 refractor, belt drive for Orion Sirius mount). I also acquired a full set of narrow band filters (Ha, SII, OIII) and started doing color narrow band imaging.
Today I posted a writeup of my experience collimating my AT6RC scope: Writeup
Here are just some of the images I've taken in the last few months:
- Moon with AT6RC
- Simeis 147
- Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy)
- Tri-color narrow band image of NGC 281
- Cygnus wide field from Staunton River Star Party.
You can check out all my new images in my New Image Gallery.
10/30/2014
Another big interval between updates. I haven't imaged for quite awhile. I have been doing some visual work with the 14 inch Dobsonian I built. However this past week I was at the Staunton River Star Party in southern Virginia and took several images. The first image I have processed is a wide field of Cygnus.
08/18/2012
Wow 41 months since my last update! I've been away from imaging for awhile now. Mostly due to the lack of a good, easily accessible dark site. I still like to talk with other people about imaging and sharing ideas and techniques. Things have changed alot in the 9 years since I started imaging - these days you can get a nice Sony based camera from Starlight Xpress with a chip 3 times larger than my SXV-H9 (1st camera) for the same amount of money! And so many reasonably priced refractors and fast Newtonians compared to when I got my Epsilon 180ED and Sky-90. I've been thinking of trying to get active again using a modified Canon camera and an Astro-Tech 6 inch f/4 Newtonian.