I set the 'scope up on the patio and immediately noticed that between the house and the trees, I would only have access to the sky within about 40 of the zenith. My first clear night I also noticed something else: it was hard to see even Polaris without the aid of the telescope -- what awful skies! "Never fear," I said to myself, "I should be able to get something with the ST6."

Just a month earlier, I had been at the Winter Star Party in Florida. There I purchased some potentially boffo software called "The Sky" and "SkyPro" which would not only chart the heavens for me, but also give me remote control of my telescope. With the proximity of my new backyard setup I could at least work on the setup and debugging of everything much more often than at my dark site.

I set the computer up in the kitchen just a few metres from the patio, so I could watch the screen while I adjusted the 'scope. After alignment the software proved to be so accurate that I didn't need to do any eyepiece viewing. I could move the 'scope and download images without the aid of a guidescope or flip mirror!

I was able to get 5 and 10 second snapshots of many galaxies around the zenith, including NGC objects down to about 14th magnitude. It soon became apparent that all that needed to be done outside was focus. But wait -- the "Sky" program can control a JMI focuser too!

The next day I called John Kidner (amazing -- he was open!) and had him send me a JMI focuser (fortunately he had one that hadn't been spoken for!). I installed it and waited for some clear weather. In the meantime, I busied myself removing all of the computer stuff from the kitchen table -- by popular family request! I ran two 4-conductor RJ11 telephone cables through the garage and down into the recreation room in my basement. One cable serves the LX200, the other serves the ST6. After the computers' COM ports were all sorted out, the LX200, ST6, and electric focuser were all able to talk to the computers.

And it all works! Now the only time I need to go outside is to take the cover off the 'scope and turn on the power. But here is the best part: Even with the brightly lit urban sky, I can acquire images of objects in 4 to 10 seconds that reveal more than can be seen by actually looking through the 'scope!

I should explain that I wear trifocals. When invited to look through other people's 'scopes, I have to rack the focus quite a ways just to achieve focus -- and if I'm really lucky, I'll see just one fuzzy spot instead of the usual three.

To illustrate the difference between my eyesight and what I see with the CCD, let me tell you about M95 in Leo. This was one of the first objects I imaged. At first I didn't recognize it. It was a barred spiral with a ring all around it. I grabbed for my copy of Burnhams, and sure enough, that's the way it is! I have seen this object many times before and never saw much except an ill-defined, fuzzy spot. More than just astrophotography, these new CCDs let me SEE!

While remote astrophotography is indeed the cat's meow, the "virtual observing" that my new setup permits is, for me, the icing on the cake.