Michael A. Stecker
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In 1998, with a few friends of mine, organized the University of San Carlos Astronomical Society. I also went to Davao City to view my first total solar eclipse on March 18 of this year. This year also was the year of the Mars Opposition. On Jan 15, 1990, I received my first telescope! It's a Meade 2080LX5 Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope. In 1995, I sold my LX5 and acquired my Losmandy GM8 and my Celestron C8 along with an SBIG ST7 CCD camera. On 1996, I ordered from Peter Ceravolo his wonderful HD145 Maksutov Newtonian. On 1997, I placed my name of the now famous Astrophysics waiting list for an AP130 EDF refractor and got it the following year! Also on April 1997, I ordered an AP900QMD mount and got it 1 month later!! I got married on 1998 to my wife Vicky! I slowed down a bit after that but not for long. I placed my name on the AP900GTO list on 2001. The following year, I got an email from Astrophysics that I can order the mount with a December 2002 deliver. I sold my QMD on August 2002. But my mount was delayed! I did not get my mount till June 2003! But it is worth it! This mount is FANTASTIC! On 2003, I have been doing planetary imaging using my Toucam Pro Webcam. While deep sky imaging is done with either film or my SBIG ST7E CCD camera. On February 2004, I took the pludge and bought a Coronado Solarmax 60 to observe the rare Venus Transit of 2004. Lately, I have
bought a new planetary camera. This is the DMK21BF04. This camera and my
friend Tomio Akutsu's C11 has been a wonderful combination for me. This
has allowed to me take stunning planetary images |
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