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Contact information
website
http://www.HiddenLoft.com
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Biography
I was
born in Philadelphia and spent most of my career in the northeastern US.
With degrees in Physics and Electrical Engineering, I worked in many
aspects of science and technology, eventually ending as a senior executive
in a high technology company. We moved to our present home in Arizona
when I retired. With hobbies like astronomy, computers and photography,
it was unavoidable that at some point I would get into CCD-imaging. I
have pursued this almost as a full time job and find the pursuit very
rewarding.
Astronomy Tale
When my wife and I first got
together, we did the usual sharing of stories and, when I mentioned my
interest in astronomy in high school, she bought me a 6” reflector as a
birthday gift. Boy was that a mistake! Many telescopes have come and
gone since then and the culmination was my cutting a hole in our garage
roof to build my observatory. Nevertheless, she remains very supportive
in everything I do.
Areas of interest
I am primarily interested in CCD imaging,
with galaxies as my favorite targets. I like to tune equipment to get the
most out of it and understand the underlying technology from first
principles as much as possible. I generally publish the results of my
studies on my web site.
Astrophotography publications
Contributor to Crux,
a publication of the Astronomy Society of Victoria
Contributor to Niebo na weekend, an astronomy book
published in Poland
Exhibitor at the Denver Museum of Science
Cover photo for Starfire, a musical CD by Judy Hunt
Sky
and Telescope: July 2004,
November 2004, March 2005
Concepts in
Image Acquisition, Advanced
Imaging Conference, 2004
Why a
Ritchey-Chrétien Telescope?
Advanced Imaging Conference, 2004
Author of CCDAutoPilot2 (image acquisition automation
software)
Observing site
All imaging and observing is
done at my home-made Hidden Loft Observatory located in the
northwest suburbs of Tucson, Arizona. Sky brightness is around 4.5 on the
Bortle scale and seeing averages a bit under 2 arc-sec.
Astronomical Equipment
Telescopes/mount
RCOS
14.5” Ritchey-Chrétien F/9 telescope with optics by Aries and a Takahashi
FSQ-106 refractor. All equipment is mounted on a Software Bisque
Paramount ME
CCD equipment
My imaging equipment
consists of a Finger Lakes Instrumentation IMG6303E camera and CFW-7
filter wheel and a SBIG ST-402ME guider. All equipment is remotely
controlled from my home office.
Software
Software consists primarily of the CCDAutoPilot2, the Software Bisque
Observatory Suite, Maxim and Photoshop
Activity
Although retired from my former career, I remain
active by offering consulting services for equipment installation, setup
and alignment, image acquisition and processing for amateur and academic
clients. As of this writing, I have setup and collimated 17
Ritchey-Chrétien telescopes across the country, ranging in size from 10”
to 20”.
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