What's all this then? Well, let me tell you! My name is Ashley Roeckelein ("ash" for short), and I've always been interested in all things astronomical. In the summer of 2001, I obtained my first "serious" telescope, a 10 inch Meade LX-200. Around that same time, I got the idea to use a webcam to attempt to capture some of the sights I was experiencing through the eyepiece: the Moon and Jupiter. A quick stroll through the local computer supply store brought me to the webcam section where I found a Philips ToUCamPro webcam that seemed like it would do the job.
With telescope and webcam in hand, I pondered ways to make them work together, so a search on the Internet turned up a promising set of web sites. One such site was the QCUIAG (Quick Cam and Unconventional Imaging Astronomy Group), an email list currently hosted by Yahoo. This international group of friendly amateurs provided ideas to solve my immediate need, and eventually some especially bright members (Steve Chambers and Jon Grove amoung others) discovered and shared ways to modify inexpensive webcams and videocams to take long exposure images!
A few years later, I discovered the similar joys of using and modifying "prosumer"-grade DSLR's to image astronomical targets, and this is my current imaging method of choice. One day when I'm rich and powerful, I can imagine going whole hog to spend obscene amounts of money on a "real" astro camera, but that day hasn't arrived yet ;)
These pages document my experiences using modified web cameras (such as the Philips ToUCamPro) and DSLR's (such as Canon's 300D and 350D "Digital Rebels") to image the sky, including my imaging journal and some articles I've written to help spread the word. Along the way, I've also accumulated some web links to various astronomically-oriented websites and resources that, if you're at all interested in this same kind of stuff, I'm sure you'll find useful as well.
Clear skies!
-ash N33°17'54" W112°01'54"
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