Captain Ippei

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Hello and welcome to my MBS homepage! I’m a Commercial Pilot, Certificated Flight Instructor and an Advanced Ground Instructor. My hobbies besides flying for fun are Astro-Photography and Deep Sea Fishing.

My first scope was a Celestron CPC800. It had all the bells and whistles so that a beginner like me could start star gazing with little effort. After spending some time with visual astronomy, I soon got the itch to start imaging. I bought a T-Ring for my Nikon D50 and a f/6.3 SCT focal reducer and managed to get good shots of the moon and bright clusters like M13. The next rig I purchased was the Celestron CG-5 with the Celestron 80ED OTA. That setup allowed me to get 2 min exposures using my D50. Eventually, the CG-5 turned into the CGE that I have now but I’m still using the 80ED. The longest exposure I have gotten so far is 60 minutes. Images are captured using my SBIG ST-2000XCM and Equinox Image. Processing is done with Equinox Image and Nebulosity 2.

Imaging has definitely been a big learning process, with a lot of it being trial and error and adjusting for personal likes and dislikes. Over the past couple of years, I’ve managed to practice a lot and have gotten to the point where most of the frames I get are usable. With the help of Chris Hendren and fellow MBS members, I’m now working at becoming more proficient at processing all the data I gather.

Click the airplane for my gallery.

Check below for new and revised images!