Posts Made By: Roland Christen

The Crab nebula is now passing overhead nicely. Here is an image taken with my 7" refractor and STL11K camera, cropped and upsized. H-a data was combined with LRGB color data.

Rolando

One of my favorite open clusters. 3x5 min RGB exposures.

Rolando

Spring is almost here in the north! Temperatures are in the mid-40s and the snowdrops are coming up in our yard. Now is the time to think about your observing plans and dreams for the coming months. If your wishlist includes a mount that will make your nights productive and fun, read on.

Within a couple of weeks, we will start shipping our Mach1GTO German Equatorial mount, the smallest of the AP mounts. If you place your order today, we can ship it to you in late March. The price is unchanged from our last production run: $6,350. This includes the same reliable, full-features drive system as our larger mounts.
Read about the many features of this mount here:
http://www.astro-physics.com/products/mounts/mach1gto/mach1gto.htm


If you plan to use a larger instrument now or in the future, consider the 900GTO. This mount is available to ship within a few days of your order for a lifetime of enjoyment. The price is $8,750. Read all about it here:

http://www.astro-physics.com/products/mounts/900gto/900gto.htm

If you require assistance selecting the mount most suitable for your scope or need advice regarding accessories, please call our technical support staff at the number below.

Clear Skies!

Marj Christen
Vice President
Astro-Physics, Inc
11250 Forest Hills Road
Machesney Park, IL 61115
Phone: 815-282-1513
Fax: 815-282-9847
www.astro-physics.com

Since things are a bit slow here lately, I thought I would post a few images taken during some mount testing. This first one of M37 was taken with 3 x 5 minute unguided exposures at 1600mm focal length.

M37 is a nice colorful open cluster, which is nicely situated near the zenith at 8pm. It was taken under a rising Moon that pretty much obliterated all the nice galaxies in the spring sky.

Rolando

Since things are a bit slow here lately, I thought I would post a few images taken during some mount testing. This first one of M37 was taken with 3 x 5 minute unguided exposures at 1600mm focal length.

M37 is a nice colorful open cluster, which is nicely situated near the zenith at 8pm. It was taken under a rising Moon that pretty much obliterated all the nice galaxies in the spring sky.

Rolando

This dwarf irregular galaxy, also known as Coddington's nebula, is part of the M81 group of galaxies. I shot this on tuesday of this week, 19 x 5 minute exposures with the 305 F3.8 Honders and STL11K camera.

Unfortunately the Moon was full that night and provided lots of glare in the sky, but fortunately it was transparent enough to get some detail. This is one faint object for these midwest urban skies!

Full field image.

Rolando

This dwarf irregular galaxy, also known as Coddington's nebula, is part of the M81 group of galaxies. I shot this on tuesday of this week, 19 x 5 minute exposures with the 305 F3.8 Honders and STL11K camera.

Unfortunately the Moon was full that night and provided lots of glare in the sky, but fortunately it was transparent enough to get some detail. This is one faint object for these midwest urban skies!

Full field image.

Rolando

Nice little irregular galaxy with reddish core and blue arms where there appears to be lots of star formation. Looks to me like a barred spiral.

This is fairly faint and was difficult to pull out of our local light polluted sky, and almost impossible to avoid heavy gradients. Lots of little galaxies in the surrounding area, the full image (this is a center crop) shows over 50 galaxies down to mag 17.

28 x 10 minutes Lum, 14 x 10 minutes RGB, taken with 305mm R-H astrograph, QSI 683 camera.

Rolando

Nice little irregular galaxy with reddish core and blue arms where there appears to be lots of star formation. Looks to me like a barred spiral.

This is fairly faint and was difficult to pull out of our local light polluted sky, and almost impossible to avoid heavy gradients. Lots of little galaxies in the surrounding area, the full image (this is a center crop) shows over 50 galaxies down to mag 17.

28 x 10 minutes Lum, 14 x 10 minutes RGB, taken with 305mm R-H astrograph, QSI 683 camera.

Rolando

To all,
We are very excited to announce our new 1600GTO German Equatorial mount, which features optional Absolute Encoders available for both R.A. and Dec. - the pinnacle of precision. Absolute Encoders provide completely error-free tracking, software readable absolute position, homing and customizable limit functions.

Additional features include: through-the-mount cabling, instrument carrying capacity of approximately 220 lbs. (100 kg), 0-78 degree latitude range and quick, automatic worm mesh. The 1600GTO includes the time-proven GTOCP3 Servo Control Box for reliable operation. When paired with Astro-Physics Command Center (APCC - scheduled to be released very soon), the 1600GTO is a robust imaging platform for remote observation.

The 1600GTO was designed to grow with you as you explore new avenues of astronomy. It can be used in its basic configuration with the Keypad for simple backyard observing or you can add the optional Absolute Encoders when you are ready for the most demanding astro-imaging. The encoders are field-upgradable so that you do not have to return the mount to Astro-Physics to have them installed.

This mount will have its debut at the Northeast Astro Imaging Conference (NEAIC) next Thursday, April 26 and be featured at our booth at the Northeast Astronomy Forum & Telescope Show (NEAF) during the weekend. If you are planning to attend, please stop by to check it out.

The pricing and delivery schedule have not been finalized, however we plan to have more information next week. Please do not call the office. For the next few days, we will be packing our equipment for transport to NEAIC and NEAF. We will add more information to our website after we return.

For those of you interested in the 1200GTO, we regret to inform you that it will no longer be available to purchase. Instead, you may want to consider this next generation mount in the same size class. Each person on the 1200GTO notification list will receive an e-mail today with this announcement. Their names will automatically be transferred to the 1600GTO notification list. If a smaller mount will suit your needs, consider our 900GTO. It is currently available for delivery within a few days of your order.

Please check out this link for more information:
http://www.astro-physics.com/products/mounts/1600gto/1600gto.pdf

Sign up on the notification list here:

http://www.astro-physics.com/webdata/notify.htm

Clear Skies!

Marj Christen
Vice President
Astro-Physics, Inc
11250 Forest Hills Road
Machesney Park, IL 61115
Phone: 815-282-1513
Fax: 815-282-9847
www.astro-physics.com
Please include this e-mail with your response.