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This site last updated:
03/06/2023

Background Photo: 
Open Star Cluster M41
in Canis Major

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Yep...this is me, Pat Freeman, standing outside my former "field home", otherwise known as a Kendrick Observatory Tent.  This tent was my home-away-from-home when I traveled frequently for week-long astrophotography outings.  You can just make out the Meade 12" LX200GPS telescope (since sold) in the tent, directly behind me.    This telescope was my primary astrophotography platform for several years, having now been sold to fund a Celestron Evolution 9.25" telescope meant for public stargaze duty.  

I've been interested in astronomy since my teenage years in my home state of Ohio.  When I was about 12, my father gave me a 4" Criterion Dynascope reflector he'd won in a raffle at work, and that telescope introduced me to the brighter planets, including Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn.  I got my first serious telescope, an 8" Celestron C-8 Deluxe Computerized SCT, in 1997, now also retired to public stargaze duty.  I can still remember my first night out with it, and the thrill of seeing the Ring Nebula and M13 through it.  In 2002 I moved upscale with the 12" Meade LX200GPS go-to telescope.  I added a Televue-85 refractor in 2004.  All three of these telescopes have been used for the older astrophotos you will see on this website. 

My latest additions (between 2009 and the Fall of 2013) have been a Losmandy G11 mount with Gemini II Go-To, and a Celestron EdgeHD 11" optical tube with an Orion EON-80 refractor as guide scope.  I also added a completely new second imaging rig, a Celestron EdgeHD 8" optical tube on another Losmandy G11 mount with Gemini II Go-To, using an Astro-Tech 72mm refractor guide scope.  In addition, I added a light-weight imaging rig, iOptron's SkyTracker Pro mount, which I can use on a photo tripod with any of the three Canon DSLR cameras (20Da, Hutech-modified 50D, or 60Da) and any of several lenses, for wide-field unguided photography.  I also own a Starlight Xpress MX26C one-shot color CCD camera and an old SBIG ST-8300M monochrome CCD camera with a 5-position filter wheel for tri-color (Red, Green, and Blue) imaging.  All of the latest astrophotos on this website were taken with this new gear.

I used to have several favorite observing / astrophotography sites.  One was the Cincinnati Astronomical Society's dark-sky site in Adams County, Ohio.  One was the Caesar Creek State Park area in southwest Ohio.  As of late 2022, I've retired and permanently moved 875 miles from my previous home in west-central Ohio, to the Chiefland Astronomy Village in Florida, where I'm installing the Edge 11" on a permanent pier.  Most of the pictures you see on this website were taken at one of these three favorite locations.