Welcome to LVVASTRO , Larry Van Vleet’s astronomical imaging website.

This website has been created to showcase my love for astronomical imaging. Like many in this hobby, I got my first telescope while still quite young and have maintained a healthy interest in astronomy ever since. I began experimenting with astro photography using a Celestron Schmidt camera around 1978 ( see first image here ) and from that small beginning, developed a fascination for the hobby that has now grown to include co-ownership of a fantastic remote observatory complex and a wide variety of equipment and processing tools. (see equipment list here)

Of course, the road forward has not been without it’s problems and frustrations. The emergence of robotic imaging was the real game changer for me, however. No more dragging a car full of equipment out to some remote darksky site 50 miles from home where I would freeze my behind off all night only to find out that the wind ruined 3/4 of my frames. No more trying to get up to go to work the next day on an hours worth of sleep or trying to explain to the girlfriend why I won’t be home all night because there is no moon and the sky is clear. Now I just login to my observatories from a home office, start up an imaging plan, and come back in the morning to see what I’ve got. Much better and a whole lot less painful!!! Of course, it is not really quite that simple… but almost.

Hopefully, you will enjoy what I have to offer here. One of my goals has been to show what can be accomplished using some of the fantastically capable amateur imaging hardware and software available today. If I can excite you about some of those amazing possibilities I will have accomplished a lot. I can’t wait to see what becomes available in the future.

Clear Sky and Happy Imaging to All…

December 2010
Larry Van Vleet