After being "inactive" for almost a year, I am slowly returning.  Last year my husband and I relocated from Puerto Rico to Portugal and I decided to bring my equipment with me.  The whole relocation process took a lot longer and was more complicated than we anticipated.    We finally settled in a small town in the Portuguese coast and the telescope found its home at Pixel Skies in Spain.

Last December and just two weeks before I was scheduled to travel to Spain to setup my equipment, my old failthful Orion Atlas Pro "died".  In the middle of the Christmas rush I purchased a EQR8Pro.  I had to make an unexpected detour to pick it up in Madrid on my way to Granada, where the observatory is located, otherwise it was not guaranteed it would arrive on time for the installation.   Then, when I started imaging NGC 2264 in early January I noticed that mount had a huge backlash and I had to return it under warranty.  Skywatcher's technician in Spain checked and fixed the issue and the mount was sent back in early Feburary.  After very rainy February and March the weather is finally improving, which gave me a chance to continue working on NGC 2264.  Unfortunately at this time of the year it sets quite early and by the time the Astronomical Sunset arrives it is slightly over 40 degrees over the horizon.    I still decided to finish the project and see what came out of it.   I have to admit this one was tougher to process than I expected.  

I still need to fix some slight tilt on my imaging train, and the OAG has been acting a bit funny in the past few days.  The short backfocus Edge HD 8" is a pain to deal with, and makes very hard to fix these kind of issues.  I am seriously considering going back to a refractor in the near future...will see...

On the other hand I have to say that I am very happy that I found Pixel Skies.  It is a fantastic hosting location and David (the owner) and his team provide excellent service and  support to his clients.  I could not have found a better place to setup my equipment.

Clear skies everyone!