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INTRODUCING TELESCOPE 18!
This month we're happy to finally introduce T18! After a long delay, T18 will be our new iTelescope located at the observatory in Nerpio, Spain. It now joins the ranks of T7 and T16.
 T18 is a Medium Deep Field, 12.5" Planewave Corrected Dall-Kirkham Astrograph mounted on a Paramount ME. It uses a KAF-6303E CCD and supports Astrodon Series E LRGB, Astrodon 10nm Ha, SII, OIII, and Photometric V filters. It is an excellent telescope for astrophotography, but also has the research grade photometric V filter and Astrodon narrowband filters for scientific applications.
If you would like to see the complete Instrument package and telescope optics specifications, please visit our Telescope Information site here.
T18 will be a great addition to our Nerpio, Spain family of iTelescopes!
We're very excited to see T18 finally online, and cannot wait to see what wonderful things will be imaged on it!
SSO Update - The Homestretch!
As some of you may have noticed, we are nearing the completion of construction at Siding Spring Observatory. The launchpad has already been updated to show the extent of our progress now that the roof is nearly done. The All Sky Cam is active at Siding Spring now, and the computers for T9, T12, and T30 are set up and ready for the telescope hardware, with T13 due to come online today or tomorrow.
The roof has been gaining a lot of momentum over the last week or so. The roof frame was completed early this week, and we expect final installation to begin by the end of the week. Once the final installation is done, Brad Moore and Pete Poulos will be hard at work completing the installation of hardware and the entire team will be set to test and calibrate the telescopes to bring them online.
Roof Ariving at Siding Spring.
Roof arrives at observatory site. Pete does a happy dance, hiding from the rain.
Day One - The first part of the frame is already done. The guys worked hard through a rainy day. Pete is still doing a happy dance.
Day Two - The guys are hard at work trying to complete the frame.
The Roof Frame is complete, and the excitement is building!
We leave you today with the first part of the roof covering going up. Almost done!
I can't express how excited we are to finally be able to bring the southern skies back to the iTelescope community! Stay tuned for a special addition newsletter near the end of this month as we begin to celebrate the Grand Opening!
Customer Showcase: Pick Your Target Contest
Last month, we asked you to start imaging and post those images on Facebook and you responded! The below images were the winners of the Contest as voted by you on Facebook! This Month had so many amazing images it was hard to pick just two winners. However, with your votes, we were able to narrow it down to two amazing images! Both our winning images this month are the fabulous M31, with M32 and M110 peaking around the edges.
The first place winner returns us to Nicole Mortillaro who shot this fantastic Luminance only stack on T14, winning 100 iTelescope points.
This amazing shot was 3x300 second luminance filter on T14. This is a breathtaking shot truly showing how much detail can be captured even with a small amount of imaging time. Of course it helps to have the processing skills Nicole has! Another fantastic shot!
The second place winner is iTelescope newcomer, Ronald Dubois, winning 50 iTelescope points. His M31 paints an artistic twist, with some amazing color control. He captured it on T16 at our Nerpio, Spain Site.
This M31 is Ronald first project with iTelescope and was captured on T16. It is 70 minutes of Luminance with 30 minutes each of Red,Green and Blue. He used DeepSkyStacker, PixInsight, and Photoshop CS6 to process the image. Amazing shot, especially for a first project!
Our winner from last month, Noboru Yamamoto, continued to produce some more amazing shots over this last month. If we could have 3 winners, he would have been included yet again. If you haven't seen his more recent work, please check our Facebook page for his, and many other images and news updates!
If you would like to see these, or previous winners in full, check out our image gallery for Customer Showcase Winners here.
Next Month's Showcase: Pick Your Target Contest
With our customers getting involved in the Showcase, we have decided to take it to the next level! So now you, our customers, will pick the winner each month! To take part in the contest, all you need to do is post your image on our Facebook page (please include which telescope, the number of exposures, filter used during exposures, how long each exposure lasted, and the tools used to process the image). The deadline for submissions is December 15th, 2012.
Then you, our customers, will vote on each Astrophotographic or Scientific image by clicking "Like" on Facebook. On the 16th of November, we will add up who has the most "Likes" for images posted between November 16th and December 15th and they will be our winners. First place (most "likes") will win 100 points on iTelescope.Net. If there are any ties, iTelescope.Net will break the tie. A backup will be chosen if the winner does not claim their prize when notified by email from aron@itelescope.net.
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