Equipment Page

I have enjoyed the hobby of Astronomy for years.  Only since the beginning of 2000 have I begun to pursue my dream of taking pictures of things in the night sky.

Currently I have the following:

10” Meade LX200 Schmitt-Cassigrain

In February of 2000, I purchased the most fantastic astronomical tool available for the amateur astronomer. It is a Meade 10" LX200 telescope.

Here's are a couple of pictures of me with my scope in the back yard.

I have had a lot of fun with the scope in Alt-azimuth position in the last year. I have even taken some wide field shots with my Minolta XGSE mounted piggy back on the scope. There is a time/focal length limit to the alt-azimuth setup that when you exceed you get elongated stars or even trails. This Christmas my lovely wife got me an equatorial wedge, so I will soon be making great wide fields and even better, some wonderful shots through the scope.

I will be posting photos that I make on this site. Check out my newest astrophotos here. As I gain expertise in astrophotography, I will include tips and secrets to make your efforts worthwhile.

I recently purchased the kit to make a Cookbook 245 CCD Camera. I have the power supply done and have partly assembled the two circuit boards. I am having a little problem with one the circuits, however and am trying to troubleshoot as I write this.

Find out more about the Cookbook camera here. It is called the Cookbook camera because you gather the ingredients (the parts) and cook it yourself (put it together). It appears to be a fantastic CCD camera, at 1/8^th the cost of some high quality production CCD cameras. If you don't believe me, check out the Cookbook CCD Gallery.

I will post my efforts at building the camera on this site as I go, and will offer tips, if any, to help you make yours easier to assemble.

In the future (maybe distant future), I plan on making 8" x 10" framed and matted photographs available for order. Keep coming back for updates.