Telescopes
1/26/23
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The main NJ scope is a 12.5" diameter-mirror modified Dall-Kirkham Cassegrain (iDK made by AG Optical, f/6.7, FL 2130mm). The telescope sits on a Paramount-MX equatorial mount, on a permanent pier in my observatory (see NJ Observatory gallery).
The telescope in Chile currently is a Planewave 24" CDK (a Dall-Kirkham Cassegrain design) at f/6.5. Images before 2022 used a Planewave 16" f/7. Both of these telescopes employ a field flattening lens after the secondary mirror in the light (...)
Software used to process the images
1/25/23
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CCD Stackv2
Maxim DLv6
PhotoshopCS5
TopazDeNoise
ASTAP
Autostakkertv3
Registaxv6
Cameras, CCD and CMOS sensors
1/2/23
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CMOS sensor-based astro cameras have recently come to the fore and have really changed the game in amateur as well as professional astronomy. The cameras used in the images from New Jersey on this site are the ZWO ASI2400MC, ASI071MC and the ASI2600MM. The images taken remotely from Chile before 2024 used cameras with CCD sensors, the KAF-16803 CCD full frame sensor in FLI and SBIG configurations. Since 2024 we are using the Moravian C5A 100M CMOS camera (mono camera with LRGB filters).