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About Me |
Welcome to CaliforniaStars.net, a personal Web site about my astronomical endeavors around southern California.
Like many amateur astronomers, my introduction to astronomy was at a young age. My father owned a Celestron 5" SCT (the infamous, orange C5) in the late 70s.  I recall viewing Jupiter, Saturn, and the Moon through it on many occasions... and being amazed. At the age of 12 I received a 2" refractor and table-top tripod as a gift. I used it to peer at birds in the backyard, view distant power lines and transformers, and to peek at the top of Mt. Wilson from my backyard on the San Gabriel Valley floor. 
Once I turned that 2" telescope toward the sky and found objects I had only seen in books (like the Orion Nebula, the Andromeda Galaxy, and the Pleiades) I was drawn to the sky forever. From that point forward my piggy bank, my wallet, my checking account, and my credit cards would never be the same.
Since then, I've owned a Jason 3" Schmidt-Newtonian, Coulter 10" Dobsonian, Meade 10" LX200 (later replaced with the LX200GPS), and William Optics Megrez 80mm APO refractor. My current equipment is shown here.
In 1999, with the purchase of my 10" LX200 I finally had a telescope that tracked the objects I was viewing. Not only that, but it also slewed to just about any object I commanded it to! Up to this point, star-hopping was how I found objects in the sky. Star-hopping is an important step to learning the night sky. But after 15+ years of that, I felt it was time to let the technology do the work!
Now that I had a telescope that tracked objects, I quickly got the urge to try photography through the telescope. Toward the end of 2002, I made a purchase that changed my approach to this hobby forever: a used SBIG ST-7 CCD camera. At the time, I used my 10" LX200GPS and William Optics 80mm Super APO to image the skies. I found out, as others did, that using the LX200GPS for imaging had its challenges. As a result, I started MeadeLX200GPS.com (which no longer exists but the content can be found here). I found myself imaging with the widefield APO more often than the SCT, which is a trend I've continued.
I currently live in Ontario, California, which is just outside Los Angeles County but well within the heavy light pollution of the greater LA area.  Me beside my TOA-130, SV80S, and MI-250.
Thanks for visiting!
Daniel S. Perry
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