Welcome to the Halfmoon Observatory Website

You have arrived at the internet home of Halfmoon Observatory. Owned and operated by John McCubbin, it is an roll off roof observatory built for amateur CCD imaging. The main photographic instruments are an Astro-Physics 180EDT f/9 refractor with a piggybacked Takahashi FSQ106N f/5 refractor along for the ride. The observatory is located in rural Kentucky where we are treated to some very dark skies when the humidity cooperates. The observatory also houses a LightSpeed 12.5" fork mounted newtonian telescope hand made by Charles Riddell of LightSpeed Telescopes and a Ceravolo 8.5" Maksutov Newtonian equatorially mounted telescope for visual use. Imaging is currently being done with a SBIG ST-10MXE and autoguiding is done via an SBIG STV. Other specialized imaging projects are undertaken with a Canon 5D (see the recent images)

New Site Design

The website was re-designed a couple of years ago. My free time to devote to imaging and articles concerning imaging come and go, but I'm maintaining the site mostly because I still get requests to look at the images and I still receive questions concerning the how-to articles. CCD imaging and the techniques involved are changing fast. The equipment has radically improved over the last 4 years. The articles are old, but the priciples are solid, so use the information as you wish. They are mostly aimed at beginning imagers.

Site Navigation The gallery consists of four categories of images grouped by general type. Galaxies Nebulae Globular Clusters Planetary and Solar System Objects The observatory tour will give you a visual tour of the observatory setup. The resources link will lead you to the articles on how to get started in CCD astrophotography. The downloads link will you to a couple of wallpapers I created a few years ago and other various astronomic oddities I put there from time to time. The Links navlink is pretty self-explanatory. Last, but not least, the contact page has a link where you can contact me via email. To stop the spammers, you'll have to do some translating. Feedback is always welcome.

Astronomy Resources

I am including some additional information with each image that is targeted at curious visitors and those interested in astronomy. These resources are targeted at the beginning to intermediate amateur level and will consist of basic information about each object and links to additional resources.

As mentioned earlier, I will leave up the articles I wrote for beginning imagers that will hopefully get them past some of the initial hurdles of imaging with a CCD camera. If you are an imager yourself and would like to include an article, I welcome submissions. This is a database driven site and is very easy to add this type content. I will decide on a case by case basis what to include in the resources section.

Welcome to ccdastrophotography.com and I hope you enjoy the site.

I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place ... Psalms 8:3