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Astronomical Imaging turned out to be a lot of fun for us. My wife and I use to go to one of two or three locations to do our imaging.

When the marine layer isn't a problem for us, we usually setup in the backyard of our house in Coto de Caza. I have a direct cable modem Internet connection already outside for use at the observatory site in the backyard. This allows me to keep the computers time in sync with the US Naval Observatory, and access to anything on the Internet that I might need during a nights observation session.

An old location we sometimes use is up on Elsinore Peak in the mountains of Southern California. It is approximately 3500 feet in altitude, with skies that are not to badly light polluted. CCD cameras help a great deal in the area of light pollution, so the lights from the cities of Elsinore and Temecula don't usually pose a real problem. Sometimes the marine layer will come inland and cover up Elsinore and Temecula, but the marine layer has never been higher than Elsinore Peak any time I've seen this happen. When this happens, then the skies are really dark. Elsinore Peak is about a 45 minute drive from our home in Coto de Caza. Mt Palomar with the famous 200 inch Hale Telescope, is right straight across from Elsinore Peak to the East about 35 miles. I often use the Palomar dome to do the initial alignment on the Meade LX200 finder scope.

Another location is up on Table Mountain, just about 3 miles from Wrightwood in the San Gabriel Mountains. This is a favorite local Ski spot during the winter months. But during the off season, I use the parking lot to setup my telescope because it is nice big surface to setup on. Table mountain is about 7500 feet in altitude with really nice dark skies to the west, north, and east. The southern exposure is somewhat light polluted from the lights of Los Angeles, although I have taken images in the south that have turned out pretty good. Also, naked eye observing is really good here generally speaking. Table Mountain is about one and half hours drive one way from our location here in Orange County.

One of the cameras I built and used to image these photos is the Cookbook Camera by Richard Berry, Veikko Kanto, and John Munger. While this is not a research grade camera, and has been built by many people, it is none the less capable of some rather impressive images when processed with good image processing software. The TC-245 version which my camera is, produces images that are 378 wide x 242 pixels deep. The TC245 CCD chip is cooled by a Peltier to typically -30 degrees Centigrade. This allows for imaging times in excess of 60 minutes without "Well" saturation on the CCD chip. This picture shows the Cookbook Camera mounted on my 10 inch Meade LX200 telescope with me setting up the computer system for the nights imaging session.

I am now adding images using my "SBIG ST8" CCD camera. This camera is capable of 1530 x 1020 pixel images with 9 micron square pixel sizes. I've started a new table of images for my ST8 images. You can see the comparison between the CB245 and the ST8 for those images that are the same. Besides the large image size this camera gives, it also has a built in autoguider CCD chip. That means it will keep the telescope tracking on a star I choose at the same time it is taking an image. Now I can shot a single image for up to 1 hour and keep the telescope centered on the object.

The Cookbook Camera images were processed using Bruce Johnston's SuperFix processing package. I think it is an outstanding image processing package and I highly recommend it. Please visit his Web Page for more details.

I now have my Ritchey-Chretien 12.5 inch F/9.7 scope and Software Bisque's GT-1100 Paramount mount. Here is a picture of me standing next to the scope and mount so you can have a reference point for the size. We have finished building the "Nova Quest Observatory" out in the desert at the "Orange County Astronomers" Anza club site. The observatory building is 18 feet long by 14 feet wide with a roll off roof. It contains an 8 foot x 14 foot control room in the fixed portion of the observatory and the 10 foot x 14 foot roll off portion contains a 10" LX200 F/6.3 scope and the Mountain Instruments 12.5" F/9.7 Ritchey-Chretien scope.

Construction on "Nova Quest Observatory." is completed as well as the interior control room. We've installed the carpet, electrical is functioning, phone service is hooked up, the bunkbeds are installed, and the process of automating the observatory is underway. Software for the Weather Station is completed as well as the GPS software to keep the computers date and time accurate to within 1/4 second. Cabling for the two telescopes to the control room is completed. We have provided additional pictures you can view by clicking on the above link. This link will take you to a complete sequence of all construction images from start to present date. There are "Next/Previous" links at the bottom of each page.