Every technoid needs lots of technology toys around. Here the tower under the right side of the desk is used to control the Pixcel 237 CCD camera control unit (SBIG should rename it Pixcel 237 CCD & CCU). A 10 Mhz 10BaseT ethernet hooks the laptop and tower together for moving data fast between the two systems. Forget that dumb USB port. USB is slower and the more devices hooked to it makes it even slower. USB is good for some things but the ethernet controllers for both the laptop and the tower are cheaper, faster and better than USB for this purpose.

Desk with laptop and tower.

The north eastern view out my window when I lived in Albuquerque, NM. . This is the Sandia mountain range. The detail is'nt much to look at in this image. The mountain range is about 10,000 ft high. There are many communications antenna at one location. Although it can not be seen here, there is a lookout point, a large stone built fortress and a tram tower and restaurant in direct view. Of course at about six miles to the mountains and up another mile in elevation from here, only the antenna towers are visible to the naked eye. I have captured images of the above items. One Sunday I placed my digital camera behind the lense of my telescope making the scope a 2000mm telephoto lens. I got fairly good images closeup considering the atmospheric thermal disturbance. I even made AVI movies of the tram while the tram car was coming and going. The tram carries people to a restaurant at the top and for ski'ing down the other side. The ski lift on the other side of the mountain brings them back up to the tram connection point.

NE image out my window

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