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Now in the Zoomify pane, the 400 hour Orion Mosaic I started in 2011 can be enjoyed at 40% full size.I began by taking a 4 pane mosaic in Luminance, Red, Green, Blue, and Hydrogen Alpha, of the Sword of Orion. The region including the 3 Belt stars, Flame Nebula, Horsehead, and Orion Nebula and ended up as a 56 hour 4 pane mosaic.I was able to extend my stay in Spain, and I decided to try to image the main asterism, that is the "X" of Orion so visible in the Winter sky. In the Winter of 2012 /2013...

I began taking the Luminance data for this Mosaic in 2016. This was done over holidays taken at Les Granges using the Dual Tak scope set up. All panes were taken manually. So each night I would align the telescope to the section of Cassiopeia I wanted to image. Once I was happy with the overlap of the stars to the previous pane imaged, I focused both scopes and started guiding. Constant checking on the focus was needed as the temperature dropped throughout the night.Using the dual scopes over many holidays to Les Granges, I was able to complete the...

A few months ago I was asked if I would be interested in joining a party to Belize to prove a theory on the Mayans and Meteor Showers.The group comprised of Astronomers David Asher and Miruna Popescu, along with Mayan expert Hutch Kinsman. The idea was to stay overnight at the Caracol site in Belize and observe the Eta Aquariid Meteor shower from the A 3and A6 complex. We were to show that the Meteor shower was seen by the Mayans, and that it was a very important event from the Heavens for them. Hutch was able to read the...

My remote Observatory in France is almost complete. After seeking the help from the Star Gazers Lounge Forum with Mount Issues, and Communications, it turns out that I had a Ground Loop problem on the USB comms cable from the Eagle to the Mesu.I solved the problem by adding in an Opto-Isolator on the USB cable. This blocked the ground voltage that was interrupting the Comms. Some settings needed to be changed also on the Control and Settings for the Mesu SiTech Software to track the mount correctly.The observatory works remotely now from my PC at home, and a first...

I was asked if I could take a photographer out on a night shoot as a present.I had suggested that we attempt a Milky Way Arc shot from the West Coast. Given the weather and the need to do this on a weekend, the choice of dates were limited.In April we had a decent forecast of clear skies in Mayo, so we headed to Achill island. We had clear skies all night which was excellent. After a 45min hike up from Keem beach we settled in for a 4 hour shoot of the Milky Way. We had to wait 3...