Posts Made By: Ron Stanley

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking here for a while and seen quite a few nice images. I thought I would post one of mine. Image details can be found here:

http://www.rwstanley.com/new_images.htm

Clear skies,
Ron Stanley

Hi everyone,

I took this the other night and thought it turned out pretty well. Seeing was not that great, clear with thin interspersed high clouds. Details and image are on my web page:

http://www.rwstanley.com/new_images.htm

Thanks for looking,
Ron Stanley

When the United States refused to ratify the Kyoto Accords, President Bush stated he would do nothing to damage the American economy. Now it's bye bye New Orleans, good luck to the Gulf Coast and hello to +$4/gallon gasoline and the hurricane season is only just getting into full swing. I suppose floods in India and Bangladesh or drought in Africa are somewhat easy to overlook if you are an American politician after all they probably don't have lobbyists or wealthy contributors and the United Nations is more of an annoyance than a governing body but when a major American city almost ceases to exist overnight and perhaps millions are left homeless you would think someone would take notice.

I just read that according to scientists the ozone hole over the South Pole has stabilized and perhaps even receded somewhat. My point is that global action to reduce chlorine compounds in the atmosphere is working. Granted the problem of CO2 emmisions is much larger and more complex but I believe it is solvable and even presents the opportunity to lead the way to the next energy source. After all even if there were no problems with CO2 emmissions what is the current estimate until the depletion of the major oil reserves, maybe 50 years?

So what are we doing about it? Are we leading the way into the challenges of the 21st Century? No, we are like a trembling junkie with a pistol threatening to blow anyone away who gets between us and our "fix". Sure it is cloaked in the trappings of spreading democracy and fighting terrorism but at the end of the day if the oil wasn't there we wouldn't be there either. That is the "Noble Cause" as I see it that President Bush refers to when consoling grieving relatives. It is to secure our access to cheap accessible oil until the last drops fall from the spigot.

Regards,
Ron Stanley

Right. I can see why they don't want to look back.

Watch this if you have the stomach for it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g72BuIvMbWY&eurl=http://my.barackobama.com/page/invite/keatingvideo

-Ron

Hi Jim,

CCD Commander will do what you are looking for. It is a bit more hands on than the other products you mentioned and it is also much less expensive. For what it does it seems to be a bargain.

http://ccdcommander.astromatt.com/

Take care,
Ron Stanley

Hi Floyd,

I was able to have some imaging success with an APM 160mm MN, however I was using a Starlight Xpress camera and a True Tech filter wheel. It was very close however, I had to have the adapter that connected the filter wheel and the camera custom machined to allow the combo to work and at that I probably had no more that 2-3 threads holding them together and maybe 2mmm to spare for in focus travel. I think there are filter drawers that you can use to save room. Today I am using an 8" Mak Cass and have no problems with backfocus. Here is an image taken with the APM setup:

http://www.rwstanley.com/ngc_7635_color2.htm

Take care,
Ron

Hi Jim,

Are you still using a CRT monitor either at work or at home. I found when I moved from a CRT monitor to my present monitor, an NEC LCD, images that I had processed on the CRT looked clipped on the LCD. As for your image I copied it and raised the gamma from 1 to 1.40 and I think it looks fine on my monitor. The outer blue regions show well.

-Ron

Hi Floyd,

I use a Robin Casady Tandem Bar for guiding with a guide scope and it is very effective at guiding my MK 809 at 2000 mm focal length using a Sky 90 guide scope at around 500 mm focal length. I never have an issue finding a star to guide on as well.

-Ron Stanley

Hi Mike,

I am northwest of Chicago and I've been using a SXV-H9 for a number of years with an MK-809 Mak Cass at f\10 and f\8, around 2000mm and 1750mm with pretty good results. My seeing is typically in the 2" range. I just recently purchased a QSI 532 WS which has the same chip as the ST10-XME and the boost in sensitivity is very nice and has cut my exposure times significantly. You can see my images at my web site, the images with the QSI 532 are under the "New Images" link:

http://www.rwstanley.com/index.htm

Take care, Ron

Wow! There's a lot going on there. Beautiful job Floyd.

-Ron