About Me

  Hi!  My name is Mike and I have been taking pictures of the night sky since around 2010.  

 

Let me tell you a little bit about myself before we get into the equipment and how I did what I have done on the main page.  I have always had an interest in astronomy, but have been inactive for about 25 years.  I used to visually observe long ago with a 60mm refractor as well as a 4.5 inch reflector.  My interests have always been in planetary and lunar observing, but on occasion have looked at deep sky targets.  The objects which I have observed is quite limited, the most difficult object has been the Ring Nebula in Lyra, but with such simple equipment, that was quite an achievement.  I have, however seen all of the planets except for Pluto with that simple equipment.  This was done from a site in and near Rapid City, SD.  The sky was dark there, and it was always clear.  

    Now I live in eastern Ohio, and here, its always cloudy with the occasional clear night, and even then, the transparency is seldom good.  Nevertheless, I decided to give astronomy a try, and with the new technology, being able to photograph, which added a dimension to my observing.  Today, I spend most of my observing time looking at a computer screen rather than through an eyepiece.   Don't get me wrong, I still look at some of the brighter deep sky objects visually, but I tend to spend most of my observing time looking at camera images.  Its just too cool!  I think its the geek in me that is somehow attracted to this aspect of astronomy.
  I am also a ham radio operator - callsign is KD0AR.  

  I am semi-retired. plus I work part time for a small group of stations in Northeast Ohio and Western PA as an independent contractor.  Also, I have a little part time job as a weekend janitor for a department store a few hours a week.

What equipment do I use?   If I listed every small piece, it would make for a long boring read but I'll mention the major pieces.

Lets start from the ground up.  I use a Celestron CGEM tripod/mount on a rollaround home made dolly that makes setup easier.  Sitting on the mount, I have 3 different telescopes.  I use a Astro-tech AT72ED refractor for my wide field images.  I have a "mid size" scope, an Astro-tech AT102ED refractor and an Orion 8", f4.9 Newtonian reflector scope.  This scope has a focal length of 1000 mm, soI use it for smaller objects and planetary images using a variety of barlow lenses in front of the camera.

I primarily use 2 cameras.  My deep sky camera is a QHY163M monochrome camera with a 5 position filter wheel with red/green/blue filters along with Ha and Oiii filters which allow me to create color pictures..  For planetary, I use a ZWO ASI120MC-S.  This is a color camera that functions similar to a computer webcam, except is far more sensitive and allows for a much faster frame rate which is important for good planetary images.

I also have an old Celestron Nightscape color CCD, which I use every once in awhile..

  I hope you enjoy what I have posted.  Keep an eye on the blog and come back to it often, as I will attempt to add stories and images from time to time.