2016 Year's End - Work and Photos in Review

Well, 2016 is in the photo bucket and there are not a lot of photos in that bucket due to health, home projects, and the darned cloudy and extremely cold weather. The transit of Mercury (in photo below the Moon) was a first for me!
As far as observatory modifications, I added another set of rails (to the left of the observatory) so now I can run the roll-off roof in both directions. I have installed one of two power winches to aid in rolling of the roof.
Equipment-wise, I sold the NexStar 8i SE and the Meade LXD-75 6" achro refractor. In their places I purchased a NexStar 4 SE and a High Point 6" f/4 reflector (for astrophotography).
The total number of hours in the observatory took a hit compared to the past two years, probably down 50% and the total number of posts on this blog is also down. Please, just some clear skies when I am not busy, weatherman!
2017 has a lot of projects in the observatory that need reworking or completing as well as photography I am looking forward to doing and perfecting.
Check back throughout the year and Happy New Year!

Unboxing of my new High Point 6 Imaging Newtonian Unboxing

Received a new scope from High Point Scientific this past week. It is a High Point 6" f/4 Imaging Newtonian OTA - 6F4N. The cost was only $299 for the OTA (optical tube assembly). Came via UPS and well packaged!

About the scope there is more information about the OTA at High Point Scientific:

I created an "unboxing" video. I have only had a chance to use it for visual proposes and I am impressed! I can't wait for some truly clear skies to put it through its photographic paces!

Here is the video at youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfHZsNKAW4A