Introduction:
My first observatory was located in Greene, Maine where it was the headquarters of the Maine Astronomical Society for several years (The MAS Observatory). There I had an RCOS 16" Truss Ritchey-Chretian Telescope for long focal length CCD imaging, a Takahashi FSQ for wide field imaging, and a Meade 12" LX-200 set up for visual astronomy. In 2006 I moved to Fresno and the next year set up the Lost Valley Observatory as part of Sierra Remote Observatories, located in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The Lost Valley Observatory saw first light on June 3, 2007. The main telescope is an RCOS Carbon Truss 16 inch f/9 Ritchey-Chretien telescope, with ion milled optics on a Software Bisque Paramount ME mount. Detailed information regarding the system, including the Software Bisque's Paramount ME equatorial mount and the previous SBIG STL-6303/AOL imaging systems, can be found on the "LVO Construction" link. The observatory itself was originally a 10 by 12 foot custom built roll-off roof observatory. More recently I have moved the observatory to the multi-telescope building 9 of Sierra Remote Observatories. The Lost Valley observatory is therefore part of Sierra Remote Observatories, also known as SRO (www.sierra-remote.com ), where I am one of the founding owners (along with Mel and Anna Helm). SRO is a series of observatories where we have astronomers and astrophotographers place their telescopes for data acquisition (for example, variable star research) and imaging. At The Lost valley Observatory I generally image with the telescope at 'prime', with a 3685 mm focal length. The camera is a full frame ZWO ASI 6200MM CMOS back-illuminated camera and the Starlight Xpress AO (USB version). A Starlight Xpress 9 position FW houses Astrodon Gen 2 LRGB and NB filters. Focusing and rotation via Optec Gemini Focusing Rotator. The computer is a Custom PrimaLuceLab Eagle4 Pro (modified with 62 GB RAM and a 4 TB internal SSD). The most important image acquisition programs I use are SGP Pro and The Sky X. Processing is performed with CCDStack and Photoshop CS/4. Important add-on programs I use with Photoshop include Russel Croman's GradientXterminator and Kodac Gem (for subtle smoothing). Many of the more recent images were processed by Bray Falls, a gifted astrophotographer and consultant, who is now operating my telescope at SRO. I continue to upgrade and service the telescope.
My images are listed sequentially, hopefully, though not always, improving with time and experience. They are intentionally arranged chronologically. The advantage of this type of chronological gallery is one can see the progression of experience and learning curve (with all the expected errors). The disadvantage is it's more difficult to "find" a particular image.
There are a number of links, including links to images, live telemetry, observatory construction (both the Lost Valley Observatory in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the MAS Observatory in Maine) and to SRO itself. I hope you enjoy the site.
Contact
Website Addresses: www.lostvalleyobservatory.com www.thelvo.com www.thelostvalleyobservatory.com |
The Lost Valley Observatory
Located at Sierra Remote Observatories Auberry, California Copyright 2004-2021 Keith B Quattrocchi |