My 8-inch Meade LX-90 with extended dew shield. You can also see my microfocuser which I can operate remotely--when taking astro pictures with the webcam. The little blue cardboard tube on the finder scope is how I align the LX90 when doing solar observing. I simply point the scope at the sun until there is no shadow at the base of the cardboard tube. Obviously, I have a complete 8-inch solar filter covering the front of the scope!
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Picture of Saturn taken on March 23, 2006
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As I have always been interested in astronomy, I haven't often had the time to devote to this hobby over the years. A generous gift from my younger brother David in Christmas 2002 allowed me to purchase the above telescope.
It is a Meade LX90 8-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain. A superbly crafted piece of equipment with excellent optics. I gave my previous 6-inch Newtonian reflector away about 10 years ago. I hadn't been using it as often as I would have liked, and our church was having an "auction". I wound up giving it to a father and son who would spend time together enjoying the sights of the sky.
I have been watching and waiting for telescopes to become computer controlled, and they finally entered the scene a few years ago. This unit has the amazing ability to "go-to" any object in the visible sky that you tell it. Using a keypad, much like your TV remote control, you just pick from a list of over 30,000 sky objects and press "Enter"--and the scope quickly and automatically moves to that unique spot in the sky and the object you requested is sitting in the center of the eyepiece field of view.
AMAZING!!!
This will put the fun back into one of my most cherished hobbies. I purchased a small web camera that attaches to the telescope in November 2003. I will post different pictures, so please check this page from time to time.
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A huge sunspot "complex" on the Sun's surface - July 6, 2005
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Jupiter and Moons taken May 13, 2005.
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Saturn as taken on January 24, 2004. The atmosphere was clear and steady for this shot. I'm really pleased at how sharp it came out!!!
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This is Comet 17P Holmes. This may well be the most unique and impressive comet that we will ever see in our lifetimes. I took this shot on a clear, cold November evening (11/2/2007). It consists of 48 images stacked together--each 15 seconds exposure. The actual 'nucleus' is the bright spot in the center--the rest is called the 'coma'-sort of a big, gaseous envelope. The comet was headed AWAY from us, so couldn't make out a tail--we are looking at its 'backside'. This 'exploding' comet is ASTOUNDING! Astronomers have NO idea why it increased over a million times its normal size in just a few hours.
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My Radio Amateur "shack" with Yaesu FT-757 GXII, the matching antenna tuner, along with power supply. Far right is a U.S. Army BC-348 receiver that I used to shortwave listen as a young teenager, which launched my ham radio passion.
Also, my best friend - Lady - joins me.
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This is the famous globular cluster in the constellation Hercules. It is called Messier 13 by astronomers. It consists of a ball of over 400,000 stars and its about 25,000 light years from the Earth. Isn't God a wonderful artist? I took this on October 23, 2006
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Mars in January 2004. You can see some surface detail.
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This is an example of what is called a "Planetary Nebula".
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This is a globular cluster of stars. It has a scientific name called Messier 67. The colors of the stars are absolutely beautiful in the telescope view!
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