The images that changed this hobby from being for fun, to for passion, are contained in this dataset. At the time I took it I thought to myself that I finally had the best triplet refractor anyone could dream to have. With that in mind, I set out to work on the Heart Nebula to see what I could make of it. In the Pacific Northwest, clear nights are few and far between. Nonetheless, I was determined to get some data with my shiny new AP 130GTX telescope I bought from the second hand market. I mounted this gorgeous optical system on my relatively new AP1100 mount, and proceeded to collect 10 hours (paltry these days) of data on the Heart Nebula and worked to get it all processed up. The resulting image, at the time, blew me away.

In that moment, I knew AP was something special. Their awesome telescope and awesome mount made this incredible treasure I could only have dreamed about prior!

I immediately sent the picture to the nice folks at Bay Photo to print up a nice version of it on metal. Not for me though. Oh no, the print was for Roland Christen, the kind man that handcrafted this beauty of a refractor and the mount it rode on. I sent a note to his wife and daughter to let them know it was coming, so he would be the only one surprised. Surely enough, the package arrived and he took it around the shop floor to show everyone. When I was told this, I smiled the biggest smile anyone could. I thought to myself, "this legendary optician likes my image!?". 

He sure did, and that set off the best voyage of my life. To enjoy many incredible telescopes, night skies, and awesome datasets -- or at least as many as I could possibly cobble together on the time I have on this little blue dot. Every one of them I have taken with Roland Christen's products, I have always shared with him digitally, and will always do so. Carl Sagan and Neil Tyson fueled my passion for Astronomy. Roland Christen fueled my passion for Astrophotography. I hold all three of those men dear to my life and my experiences in the cosmos would never be the same without them. For that, I am very thankful.

With that all said, I hope you enjoy the image. It is fairly noisy considering the CCD tech in use versus the CMOS cameras we all use today -- but a small piece of that old noisy CCD tech and the images produced from them in that time and age, is nostalgic in a way. 

Clear Skies to you all.