Greg M Posted May 10, 2021 Share Posted May 10, 2021 Well, technically, Henderson, a suburb of Vegas. My name is Greg McKay. I'm an avid astro imager and observer and love sharing my views of the night sky online and in person. I'm a past president of the Las Vegas Astronomical Society and still a very active member of the club. I've been interested in astronomy since the age of 13...some 42 years ago. Currently using a CGX mount, Explore Scientific ED127mm APO, StellarVue SV70T APO, Lunt 80mm dedicated Ha scope for imaging and a Meade 12" SCT for visual use. My camera at the moment is a ZWO ASI1600mm with Baader filters, Astro Pixel Processor for image processing with some final tweaking in Photoshop. I don't like to spend hours on processing but love the chase of image acquisition. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightspore Posted May 10, 2021 Share Posted May 10, 2021 Hello Greg. Welcome to the Yard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jkulin Posted May 11, 2021 Share Posted May 11, 2021 Welcome Greg, enjoy it over here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marmot Posted May 11, 2021 Share Posted May 11, 2021 Welcome aboard Greg. Nice to see a member from over the water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwillits Posted May 11, 2021 Share Posted May 11, 2021 Welcome Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryMcK Posted May 11, 2021 Share Posted May 11, 2021 Hello Greg. The only other 2 astronomers I know of in LV are Antoine and Dalia Grelin who have the Youtube channel Galactic Hunter. They get great photos from the Bortle 9 suburbs of Las Vegas as well as travelling out into the desert to get less light polluted shots. Do you take photos from home or travel out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GazAstro Posted May 12, 2021 Share Posted May 12, 2021 Hi Greg, welcome to BYA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul Posted May 13, 2021 Share Posted May 13, 2021 Hi Greg, welcome to the forum.🙂 I did CES a few times, cant say I remember any sky, it must be challenging! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg M Posted May 13, 2021 Author Share Posted May 13, 2021 (edited) On 5/11/2021 at 1:30 PM, TerryMcK said: Hello Greg. The only other 2 astronomers I know of in LV are Antoine and Dalia Grelin who have the Youtube channel Galactic Hunter. They get great photos from the Bortle 9 suburbs of Las Vegas as well as travelling out into the desert to get less light polluted shots. Do you take photos from home or travel out? Yes, I know Antoine fairly well. We've gone out together a few times to image from a few secret dark sky locations. I do narrowband from home and both narrowband and broadband from a variety of Bortle 2-3 locations nearby. I've even found an awesome Bortle 1 camping location at 7000' (2133m) but it's a 5 hour drive. Hoping to go there in August once again during the Persieds. When it's 115°f (46°c) here at home it's a cozy 55-65° (12-18°c) up in the mountains. 2 hours ago, paul said: Hi Greg, welcome to the forum.🙂 I did CES a few times, cant say I remember any sky, it must be challenging! As I mentioned above, it's difficult to do any narrowband here in the Vegas Valley but our air is so dry that you only need to drive in any direction for an hour or so to get to really dark skies. I have imaging locations in all four cardinal directions so it just depends on what targets I'm after. Here's 1hr of Ha and 2 hrs of OIII from my backyard. Rosette Nebula (Captured via Livestack in SharpCapPro and then combined quickly in A.P.P.) Thor's Helmet NGC2359 from a Bortle 3 location 1 hour south of Vegas. 15x 60sec ea - LRGB 40x 5min. - Ha 13x 5min. - OIII Edited May 13, 2021 by Greg M 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carastro Posted May 14, 2021 Share Posted May 14, 2021 (edited) Glad to have you on board, this site is developing into a nice community, growing all the time. How I envy you being able to get to such dark skies within a short time. I have never seen anything less than Bortle 3 and even then i had to travel abroad for that. Sounds surreal. Carole Edited May 14, 2021 by Carastro 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkAR Posted May 14, 2021 Share Posted May 14, 2021 Hi Greg and welcome, couple of cracking images there👍 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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