Spanning some 145 light years in diameter, M13 consists of several hundred thousand stars and as the brightest globular cluster in our galaxy it is generally considered to be the finest in the Northern Hemisphere. With an angular separation of just 9 o 33’, spatially the two clusters appear as neighbours but in reality M13 is some 4,560 thousand light-years closer. Building on this success and the burgeoning demand for remote imaging, DSW are now expanding their service into Chile.Īfter imaging the globular cluster M53 from Fairvale Observatory in early April, it was opportune to be able to continue the same theme with my first two DSW images taken during Q1 and Q2 – the globular clusters M13 and M92, both located in the constellation of Hercules. DSW has since established a premier reputation as an observatory producing high quality data. Established by Lloyd Smith and Bruce Wright in 2015, there are now two large bespoke roll-off sheds (Alpha & Beta – see picture below) housing up to nearly forty rigs which are used by astrophotographers from across the world – you could call it a photon factory. QSI1683-WSGA camera 5.4 nm pixels & Astrodon 5nm filtersĭeep Sky West is located about 35-miles south east of Santa Fe, at an elevation of 7,400ft on the Glorietta Mesa (see above map).Takahashi FSQ 106 FL 530mm f/5 + Moonlight Nightcrawler focuser.I therefore signed up for one year’s imaging with the following set-up: DSW were one of the early remote hosting observatories established and have a good reputation, reasonable prices and a wide choice of quality equipment. Thus having since taken steps towards this goal, which included learning PixInsight, I felt the time was right to sign-up with Deep Sky West (DSW) situated in the state of New Mexico, USA. However, after some research I concluded that whilst such a facility would be great to have it was probably too expensive for now and moreover, I first needed to spend more time improving my processing techniques before embarking on such a plan. There were three solutions to the situation: continue waiting, give up all together or look further afield where the skies are reliably clear and dark, which like many others nowadays is what I did and thus joined the ever increasing band of remote imagers.Ībout 2-years ago I considered establishing equipment at one of the growing number of astrophotography host sites in southern Europe. ![]() ![]() With continuously bad weather prevailing across Europe back in February, it was more than four months since I’d been able to undertake any astrophotography here at Fairvale Observatory – of course such problems go with the hobby but this was ridiculous and somewhat disheartening. However, this year’s an exception as I have a large backlog of image processing to complete courtesy of the Photon Factory. About this time of the year as astronomical darkness is lost for a few months I tend to take it easy, astronomically speaking.
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