observatory pics

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My observatory is located in Marana, Arizona among the Tortolita (first row left, view is North), Tucson (first row right, view is Southwest) and Santa Catalina (second row left, view is East) Mountains.  Mount Lemmon (9,150 ft) is the left most peak in the Santa Catalina Mountains.  My imaging setup (as of 2021) is comprised of  a RCOS 12.5" Ritchey-Chrétien telescope with  a SBIG STX16803 CCD camera mounted on a Software Bisque Paramount ME mount (second row right and third row).  A Takahashi TOA130 5" refractor with a SBIG STL1000M CCD camera is piggybacked on top of the Ritchey-Chrétien.  I control all devices (power controller, mount, CCD cameras, focuser/rotator, etc) remotely from my office computer via a WIFI connection (fourth row left).  The skies at my observatory are generally pretty good except for light domes in the southeast emanating from Tucson (fourth row right, see here) and in the northwest emanating from nearby residential lights (third row left).

 

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