Why so few astro images lately?

There are no LX200 images since last August and no FSQ images since last October ... what gives?

The LX200 has been undergoing significant upgrades over the past 6 months - nearly the entire optical train has been replaced. The new optical train includes a 3" Bellerophon focuser (vs. the 2" TCF-S), a 3" Pyxis rotator (vs. the 2" Pyxis), an Astrodon MOAG off-axis guider and SBIG Remote Guide Head (RGH), and an FW8-STL 8-position filter wheel (vs. the internal 5-position filter wheel of the STL-11000); only the STL-11000M Class 1 camera has not been replaced. Multiple adapters were machined to connect all of these components, and the entire optical train and individual components will be added to the Equipment section of this website. The system is now (as of end of February 2012) back in operation, and I am performing various calibrations - including RGH focusing, MOAG positioning, new FOV indicator in TheSky, new tPoint pointing model, new FocusMax V-curves and focus settings for the RoboFocus-driven Bellerophon, Pyxis rotator calibration; and new filter wheel settings, offsets and flat-field exposures. The Custom Scientific 5nm Ha filter has been replaced with Astrodon 3nm Ha, OIII and SII filters for full narrowband capability. The LRGB filters are still Custom Scientific, and will be upgraded to Astrodon Gen II in the future.

The FSQ has been in use from October-January taking approximately 100 hours of RGBHa exposures of the sky around the Christmas Tree Nebula and Rosette Nebula. A test mosaic containing the 6 panels (total of 130 megapixels of just Ha data) is shown as the bottom image on this page. I am currently trying to make the time and learn the processes to combine these images (and the RGB data) into a proper mosaic. I have been using CCDStack and Photoshop, but also trying to use PixInsight - which has incredibly powerful features but a completely new interface to master.