Summer is approaching!

Here we are another year gone and fast approaching spring and great imaging of the planets possibilities.  Have to get my scope out and tuned up and get the Celestron imager ready for fun.

A frustrating weekend of trying to get all the equipment to work in tandem.  Now I know how the engineers felt making the Lunar lander meet up with the command module!  It's all a learning curve again since I don't have the old programs and equipment I used to have.  Managed to figure out how everything linked together and have extension cords for everything so I can sit a few feet away from the scope and make everything work.  I also have another monitor I can use so I can run the telescope on one monitor and run the imager on the other.

I need to get a dark filter to take my dark flats and a light panel to take the flat flats.... as well as a filter wheel and filters like the RGB set.

So here I am after experiencing several heart attacks, having stents installed and having my thyroid and a mass removed, back in the saddle again!  I'm getting reorganised and fine tuning everything.  I have my new imager and have universal adaptors ordered for it.  Can't wait to get everything set up!

Well looks as though I am becoming a Celestron man.  Meade just decided not to support the LPI any more so I started looking for another imager and the closest thing was the LPI G which was about three hundred dollars and half the Megapixels of the Celestron unit which was two hundred dollars and is USB2 and Windows 10 compatible.  No brainer... on we go... I saw a nice C8 for five hundred bucks while I was in at KW Telescope in Kitchener as well so hmmmmmmm....all I have to do is find a decent mount...

Where have the years gone?

It's been so long since i was here last I forgot my password!  well, in July of this year I suffered a heart attack and after a stent was put in, suffered another full blown heart attack, like a TV heart attack and another five stents installed to fix the first problem.  I've had some time on my hands and have been cleaning gear and looking at my old plans and this site.  i'm out of commission for a while as far as building goes but I do plan to build.  I'm going to make the dome and building as prices of premade units have gone through the roof.  It's crazy out there.

i'll check back here in a couple of days....

Globe at Night

We usually take part in Globe at Night, but this year the boys will be in Florida for part of the program so we opted out. I was thinking about that last night when I looked out the back door and saw Orion looking back at me. Unbelievably clear!!! What a great night for seeing!!!

Astronomer's Favorite Books

I have been busy conversing with astronomers, astrophysicists and cosmologists all over the world! I have asked each one what their favorite book is and what book influenced them most. I’ll have the answers posted soon and you’ll be surprised at some!!!