The year 2020 will not be forgotten after the world was afflicted with a massive pandemic. Over the winter, the weather was not good either. The longest periods of cloudy skies I can remember. But spring has arrived with the promise of beating the virus and getting some clear night skies.
During the winter, I spent some time upgrading equipment in the observatory. Starting with replacing my Wink hub with Wi-Fi-enabled switches, specifically the Web Power Switch Pro by Digital Loggers. This is a fantastic piece of equipment that web/network enables switches for all the equipment in the observatory. Also, I replaced the network access point with a more reliable unit, the lighting strip with a Wi-Fi accessible LED light strip, and the door lock with a Schlage Encode Wi-Fi lockset. No more dependency on cloud services to operate these devices.
New cameras such as the ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro, ZWO ASI2600MC-Pro the ZWO M68 Off-Axis Guider, ZWO 2” Electronic Filter Wheel, and Chroma broadband and narrowband (3nm) filters were added to the mix. Please see the Technologies Used page for further information.
Also, the nasty problem of losing USB connections was solved by moving the observatory desktop to the pier, reducing cable lengths, and simplifying cable management.
And to top it all off, I have been spending time learning new insights into PixInsight and astrophotography image processing.
The first image of the year taken with the new upgrades in place was NGC 2174-The Monkey Head Nebula, thanks to 3 consecutive clear night skies!
Enjoy!
Dale