Backyard Setup ...

I still want an observatory !!

Getting CFF-250 RC Ready !!

Finally get everything ready !!

(1) auto focus

(2) OAG guiding with STT-8300

(3) Not too bad...

(4) Stars are round !! Collimation is done too !! Yes !!

Now I need to learn how to take flat ...

03/29/2019 CFF RC Collimation...

Finally done !!! Check out these before-and-after images...

Yes !! The Auto-Focus Finally Works !!

Oh yeah !!
Need larger step size ...

CFF RC - Still Struggle with the Auto-Focus

Not sure what happen... ;-(

CFF 250mm RC - Frist Light

Finally one cold and clear night for me to test the new RC !!
Pictures only...

2018 CalStar - Visual Observation of the Markarian 205 Quasar

This is the first time that I attend a star party without doing any imaging...

I picked and studied a couple of challenging targets for my 10" Dob and the particular one is the Markarian 205 Quasar. This Quasar is over 1B light years away from us.

The picture is from http://heritage.stsci.edu/2002/23/supplemental.html

The 14-mag target is very faint for my 10" scope. I observed this for more than an hour and can only see the it about 10% of the time. Hopefully I will get a larger scope in the future to re-visit this target.

Here is my drawing of this target:

I also observe the two faint galaxies near M13

My son, Adrain, also did a drawing on M13... ;-)

Some more images of this party ...