Hi guys,
After installing the scope and all additional equipment 200 km into the Kalahari Desert, Namibia, and spending the 2 months since in fine tuning the equipment to best performance, here’s the first full image shot remotely: The Tarantula Nebula.
When planning the Southern Sky Observatory project, Tal and I made a point of replicating, exactly, the feeling of shooting an object out in the field... We sought to give our friends and us the feeling of actually "being there", directly interacting with the familiar interfaces we have grown to love. Sitting in front of the MaximDL familiar screen, and performing all the familiar tasks from many thousands of miles away (while having an online view of the scope's every move), was - for me - the greatest and most satisfying feeling of all.
This image was shot at prime focus, 0.46 arcsec per pixel, and covers 39.95x10.25 arcmin. – a new experience for me altogether.
Here’s the image:
http://www.pbase.com...image/158459191 - I hope you like it, and any comments are, as always, very welcome.
A live view of the MaximDL screen:
http://tinyurl.com/MaximDLSSG
A live view of the scope (Infra-Red of course :-)):
http://tinyurl.com/LiveViewCam
A live view of the scope sensors:
http://tinyurl.com/ScopeSensors
More on the observatory can be found here:
http://www.pbase.com/boren/southen_sky_gems_observatory
Cheers,
Harel