A Light Show Out at the Witte Observatory

Though we were hoping for clear skies out a the Witte Observatory, what we got was a nice little light show from a distant thunderstorm.  I've been wanting to image lightning, but had not yet thought about how pretty lightning in the distance can be!

Trying Different Things =)

I'm playing around with prime focus photography through our 1937 Clark & Sons 12" Refractor.  It is, as with all of what I do, a work in progress =)

Jupiter video taped 5/30/2019 using my ZWO ASI 120 C CCD.  Images were stacked using AutoStakkert

The Moon (notice the narrow field of view...) using my Canon Ti5 DSLR.  It's on my list of things to do to get better at naming features on the Moon's surface ~ Thus my first attempts at adding names ;-)

Ah! New (FASTER) Labtop AND Dark Skies!

I had a sense that the Infinity Software for the Atik Horizons camera I purchased this summer was taxing our four-year old laptop.....  But when the temperatures dropped to about 20 F, it became PAINFULLY slow!  We were due for a new laptop anyway =)

In looking for what best to buy, we wanted something that will be used both for astrophotography and also as our family laptop <3  AND - we didn't want to spend a lot of $$ ;-)  The parameters I ended up focusing on was: 1) Solid State Drive and 2) tested against MIL-STD 180G specifically for humidity, and temperature extremes.  After a fair bit of looking, I finally ordered an HP ProBook directly from HP.  So far ~ so good :-)

I took advantage of clear skies, relatively warm temperatures ( ~ 30 F), and a moonless night January 4, 2019 and set up in our  driveway to image.  Instead of imaging only 3 objects in about 4 hours, I imaged NINE wonderful objects in about 4 hours!  The overall operating speed is CRAZY IMPROVED!!!

Here are some shots I took

I couldn't decide which image I liked best of the Orion Nebula <3

M82, Cigar Nebula

M81, Bode's Nebula

Not at all like the photos I see online ~ but can you see a Horsehead in these images?

Comet 46P and Orion Nebula

I set up my scope in our backyard December 15 specifically to image Comet 46P.  While I was out there, I took my first images of Orion Nebula with my Atik Horizons camera =)

One thing about it, with these cold temperatures, the Horizons cooler doesn't have to work nearly as hard ~

Processed Moon Video

Here's my first stab at processing video from my ZWO through PIPP, Autostakert, and Registax....  Whew!  I couldn't have done it without help from this video ~ Many thanks!!!