I retired from the Bryan College Station area 3 years ago and moved to the Bortle 2 skies of Red River County. My main interest is astrophotography. I have an observatory in my back pasture that is remote operated from my house It's currently equipped with a C14 and piggybacked ED80 on a Losmandy G11T. I also have a C9.25 for the time being. I use the C14 with a ZWO ADC and ASI224MC camera for solar system and the ED80 with an ASI1600MM Pro camera and 8 position filter wheel for DSO's.
Hello from Red River County
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Nice! I live in Bortle 8 Lewisville just down the road about 8 miles from DFW Airport. I retired 18 months ago from a 45-year IT career–the last 10 as in-house counsel for a tech firm.
It's a challenge for me here. I've been using a small, entry-level refractor, a ZenithStar 61 (which I love), and a C11. I've done planetary with the C11, but it's been a couple of years. I'm building a roll-off-roof in my side yard and will put a new Tak 106 and Tak 130 in it as well as a CDK12.5. The C11 will still be there for planetary photography and visual use. Narrowband is okay from here. For broadband, it just takes a ton of very short subs, and many things are just closed off to me here. But we have an RV and I make dark-sky trips from time to time.
I look forward to seeing more of your work!
Clear skies,
Tim
It's a challenge for me here. I've been using a small, entry-level refractor, a ZenithStar 61 (which I love), and a C11. I've done planetary with the C11, but it's been a couple of years. I'm building a roll-off-roof in my side yard and will put a new Tak 106 and Tak 130 in it as well as a CDK12.5. The C11 will still be there for planetary photography and visual use. Narrowband is okay from here. For broadband, it just takes a ton of very short subs, and many things are just closed off to me here. But we have an RV and I make dark-sky trips from time to time.
I look forward to seeing more of your work!
Clear skies,
Tim
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Sounds like a great setup, qcernie. Like Ron, I'm retired IT professional living in the Garland area where my skies are Bortle 7/8. Since I always had an interest in astrophotography but not the time when I retired I started pursuing this interest. Most of my images are taken from my backyard using a UV/IR Cut filter but I have a few images that were enhanced with data collected with the OPT L-Extreme filter. I do travel to the TAS Atoka Dark Site about once a month(weather permitting) and I attend some star parties(Okie-Tex, Edorado). My main focus is deep sky targets since I seem to lack the skills to do planetary justice.
For equipment, I have a Celestron 8" XLT SCT mounted on a Losmandy G11G mount. I recently acquired a Starizona HyperStar lens which allows me to capture wide field targets which I have been enjoying with some of my recent images.
Enjoyed seeing your images.
Clear skies,
Michael
For equipment, I have a Celestron 8" XLT SCT mounted on a Losmandy G11G mount. I recently acquired a Starizona HyperStar lens which allows me to capture wide field targets which I have been enjoying with some of my recent images.
Enjoyed seeing your images.
Clear skies,
Michael
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Hi,
I live in in the Northwestern part of San Antonio (Bortle 7), which means I'm just 1h away from some good Bortle 2 skies. This is the reason why I have a portable setup: ZenithStar 61 & Nikon D5300 on a SkyGuider Pro (with autoguiding and ASIAir pro), which allow me to image both from my backyard and from State parks out west in the hill country.
Unlike anybody else who posted so far I am not retired yet 😁. I really envy you. Juggling between work (I'm Professor of Physics at UT San Antonio), family (2 wonderful kids who keep me very busy) and Astrophotography… My life is pretty busy.
CS & Merry Christmas y'all.
Nick
I live in in the Northwestern part of San Antonio (Bortle 7), which means I'm just 1h away from some good Bortle 2 skies. This is the reason why I have a portable setup: ZenithStar 61 & Nikon D5300 on a SkyGuider Pro (with autoguiding and ASIAir pro), which allow me to image both from my backyard and from State parks out west in the hill country.
Unlike anybody else who posted so far I am not retired yet 😁. I really envy you. Juggling between work (I'm Professor of Physics at UT San Antonio), family (2 wonderful kids who keep me very busy) and Astrophotography… My life is pretty busy.
CS & Merry Christmas y'all.
Nick
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Hello From Near Celina! Dallas to South about 40 miles.. Got a tiny Nexdome in backyard here sheltered from silly lights mostly and sky can be reasonable. I swap OTAs between a SW120, TMB80 or 200mm Newtonian.. Using QGY294m these days. I'll be running it from Virginia maybe Sunday sky allowing.. Not dark dark but rgbl is possible fortunately!!
I'm an NMR Scientist who works from home and imaging keeps me busy too.
Best to all. Merry Christmas all and stay warm!
Ron
I'm an NMR Scientist who works from home and imaging keeps me busy too.
Best to all. Merry Christmas all and stay warm!
Ron
Hello from the Houston Heights. Soon to be Humble as we've just bought our first house.
My setup lives remotely in the Davis mountains out West, a few miles from the McDonald Observatory - in a remote B1 observatory. I moved my stuff out there in February and have loved it since. I have nearly crossed 600 hours of total integration time for the year and recently swapped telescopes a few weeks ago.
AP Mach1GTO, Takahashi FSQ106EDX4, QHY 268M with Chroma LRGB, Moonlite Nitecrawler WR35, Pegasus Ultimate Powerbox v2.
Wife and I are both chemical engineers relatively early in our careers.
Stay warm through this cold spell and clear skies!
Prashant
My setup lives remotely in the Davis mountains out West, a few miles from the McDonald Observatory - in a remote B1 observatory. I moved my stuff out there in February and have loved it since. I have nearly crossed 600 hours of total integration time for the year and recently swapped telescopes a few weeks ago.
AP Mach1GTO, Takahashi FSQ106EDX4, QHY 268M with Chroma LRGB, Moonlite Nitecrawler WR35, Pegasus Ultimate Powerbox v2.
Wife and I are both chemical engineers relatively early in our careers.
Stay warm through this cold spell and clear skies!
Prashant
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Hey got room for me to move my little dome out to from North Dallas LOL… Wonderful you got a dark spot.
Clear Skies. Ron
Clear Skies. Ron
I retired from the Bryan College Station area 3 years ago and moved to the Bortle 2 skies of Red River County. My main interest is astrophotography. I have an observatory in my back pasture that is remote operated from my house It's currently equipped with a C14 and piggybacked ED80 on a Losmandy G11T. I also have a C9.25 for the time being. I use the C14 with a ZWO ADC and ASI224MC camera for solar system and the ED80 with an ASI1600MM Pro camera and 8 position filter wheel for DSO's.
Cool. I do my imaging from Bowie county. Don’t know of many who do this around here.