Visit to the Hood College Williams Observatory

I had the opportunity to visit the Williams Observatory at Hood College, Frederick, MD - home of a beautiful 8" Clarke refractor!  The astronomy professor there has graciously offered to open the observatory from 8:30pm to 9:30pm every clear Wednesday night thru December 8th, with the exception of Nov 24th.  You can find more info here:
http://www.hood.edu/adminservices/news.cfm?featureID=2462.

I took a couple quick snaps that I'm posting here for your viewing pleasure. (If you appreciate old / vintage refractors, you'll love this one!)

Clarke 8" Refractor - Gorgeous!

Me at the Business End (with Unitron Unihex EP Set ;-)

Myself and Steve Berte, (both members of TriStateAstronomers) had the opportunity to actually view thru this historic instrument.  We saw Jupiter, the Moon (of course!) and the Ring Nebula.  Views were quite impressive, as was manually moving the beast and the heavy dome.  I was surprised to see a bit of false color in this F/14 scope, but in all likelyhood, it may have been from the Unitron Unihex, which was a bit loose and may have even had a slightly tilted prism.  Regardless, the views were great and it was a thrill finally getting my hands (and eyes) on a legendary Clarke refractor.  Great fun!  Make sure you check it out!

Peace & blessings to all...

Updated POD Photos and Next Step in AstroPhotography Adventures

Well, I promised a shot or two of the new side-by-side arrangement for the Digital Monastery Observatory, so here they are:

Edge C11HD w/ Explore Scientific ED102 APO

Front View Showing ADM Side-by-Side Bar

This really turns out to be a much nicer arrangement.  I thought it may be much more difficult to balance (which is critically important for optimal tracking during astrophotography) but it was actually quite easy to achieve a decent balance.  I really like the arrangement too as I have the ED102 APO for intermediate F/7 widefield or intermediate planetary and the C11 for F/10 high magnification planetary (straight use) or with the Starizona Hyperstar III auxiliary lens for ultra widefield F/2 imaging.

Now that I pretty well have my hardware set up (all except for my electronic focuser for the C11, which I hope to install this week), I've turned to seriously look at the software for imaging and observing.  I've been using SkyToolsPro3 for a few months as a core planning tool.  Whether observing or photographing, it is an amazingly capable program and I will continue to use it as a core element.  After much reviewing and studying and trying out some of the less expensive packages, I've come to accept that MaxIm DL 5 is THE package to use for years to come.  There won't be any outgrowing this one.  I 'bit the bullet' and picked up the Pro Suite, which includes MaxPoint software that learns and models your rig and yields improved pointing accuracy.   I've installed it and am hoping to get a chance this week to go thru the online tutorials and fire it up for some initial imaging runs.  The thing I need most now, is a good dozen or so opportunities to get out there under clear skies and jump headfirst into the hands on learning curve. Lord, I pray for clear skies and time and grace to be out there in the POD for a number of fruitful  imaging sessions!

Peace and blessings to you all...