Here are the first pictures taken with my SBIG ST7 camera. All pictures were taken with a Takahashi FS102 on a Vixen GP mount with SkySensor 2000 on the evening of April 1, 1999 (almost full moon!!) from my back yard in San Jose, California. Each image is a sum of 4-6 unguided images of about 90 seconds duration each. I used Maxim/CCD to combine and process the images (a wonderful program, by the way).

Note that I didn't even accurately polar align the mount for these shots and I only did a 2-point instead of the more accurate 3-point SkySensor 2000 alignment. Even with the 2-point alignment the SS2000 was accurate enough to place my targets on the ST7's CCD chip (although not quite centered).

M65: {short description of image}

M66: {short description of image}

NGC3628 (2x2 binned): {short description of image}

NGC3628: {short description of image}

On April 20th, I combined exposures of 60-second duration to get this full-sized image of NGC3628. Note that the backround has much less noise. Again all images on this page were taken from my back yard in suburban San Jose, CA with a 4" refractor.

NGC3628: {short description of image}

M51:{short description of image}