I see where the cone gets it name but I haven't quite figured out the Christmas Tree part. This is a combination of 18, 10 minute exposures in each Red, Green, and Blue or 540 minutes (yes, 9 hours )of exposure. This was taken over several nights last week. This was my first image that used calibrated RGB based on white balance from 3 equal exposures of a G2 class (white) star directly overhead. Here is a JPG from the original.
Awesome! How the hell are you staying warm in there lately??? Let us see some new indoor pictures of the observatory.
Nothing has really changed indoors. When building, I installed Cat-5 so I can now sit in the house and remotely access the scope and camera via Windoze XP's Remote Desktop. It just takes a few minutes before it gets dark to setup and then I am back in the comfort of "home". I did install a network cam to monitor status whether I am at work or home but I haven's set up a public IP address yet. Attached is a screenshot with the roof partially opened. Notice my wife's showercap used to cover the scope tube.
This particular mirror set has never been re-coated. It is 18 years old but been kept inside with air con for most of its life. Funny you ask, if you shine a light from behind the mirror you can see pits where the coating is missing. You would probably bee suprised how imperfect the surface can be and still focus light as needed. I need to get it re-coated, and I believe that professional observatories (stored outside 24/7)have thiers re-coated once/year.
The image above has been published in the June 2016 Sky & Telescope magazine in an article named "Nebula Wars" that compares the professional to the "amateur". It brought me $100 USD.
That's real cool Ishtim! I've been looking up at Mars lately. Did you get a picture of it lately since it has been so close?
