Mark Bailey, Utah
Website-blogs are an anachronism and so am I. As such, the site is about me. I write with my posterity in mind. They don’t read it either, but in deference to them, I strive to be interesting.
Included here is astrophotography from the Torrey House – Alpenglow Observatory, some landscape photography of our travels in the U.S. West, and my musings on preservation, ecology, economy, in Utah and the U.S West.
I am co-founder and board member of Torrey House Press, a nonprofit book publishing company dedicated to creating a culture to match the scenery in the West and proprietor of the Torrey House – Alpenglow Observatory. At the end of 1999 I retired young from a 19 year career at Wasatch Advisors, Inc., an investment management company. Prior to that I put in a brief stint at Intel Corp before anyone had heard of it. In 2010 we started Torrey House Press. In 2022 I had a stroke.
My wife Kirsten Johanna Allen and I split our time between Salt Lake City and Torrey, Utah. The observatory is at 7,000 feet in the dark sky community of Torrey.
-Mark Bailey
Greetings,
My name is Simon Weinfeld. I’m a member of the Los Angeles Astronomical Society (LAAS).
I’ll be heading up to Idaho next August for the solar eclipse event. I have been making arrangements for an extended 3 week trip covering Zion, Bryce & Capital Reef national parks on the way up, and going to Arches & Canyonlands on my way back home. I’ll be taking my home built 13″ dobsonian, and hoping to finally enjoy the some of these well known dark sky locations. I’ve read some of your blogs, especially relating to your father’s telescope and your new Torrey observatory. I have tentative plans to be near Torrey/Fruita/Capital Reef on Mon. and/or Tue., Aug 14/15, and would have liked to make contact with any astronomers who might be in the area at that time. Please advise.
Thank you, & best wishes
Simon
I read the article in the Tribune about your observatory. Sounds great! Since it’s connected to the internet, would you consider setting up a video feed/stream so people can see what it sees?
Thanks, Dave. I don’t currently have the technology for a live feed but a few other folks have expressed a similar interest. I’ll look into it!
Hi Mark,
I enjoyed the Tribune article and pictures. I got involved in astrophotography a few years ago and built my own roll-off roof observatory this summer. Huge respect for what you’ve built and a envious at your dark sky sight :-). I’m curious to hear more about the remote control – it seems like one mistake would require physical intervention.
Here’s a link to some of my work:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/29371479@N04/with/37462511390/
I’m imaging on a Celestron RASA with a QHY10 (just got this going in August). If you’re in the Draper area I’d love to give you a tour of the roll-off roof observatory and compare notes on gear and processing (are you a Pixinsight user?)
Great job!
Gary
garyhein@gmail.com
Hi Gary,
Thanks for your interest. Hey, those are great captures you have going on Flickr. It looks like you have just been doing this for a couple of years? I am very impressed by what your are getting. 5 minute subs from our light polluted valley seems great.
You are right, running the observatory remotely works when everything works. Which is not most of the time. But it is cool when it does.
I have an outside pier for equipment I was using prior to moving my father’s observatory down to Torrey. Outside I use a modified Canon Rebel and process the captures with DSS and Photoshop. For the monochrome camera in the observatory (an SBIG ST-10XME) I process the resulting FITS files with CCDStack and Photoshop. I haven’t used Pixinsight.
Great stuff. Thanks for touching base and keep in touch.
Mark
mark@torreyhouse.com
Hey Mark….hard not to think of Mike on his birthday. Just wanted to drop by and say hey. He was important in my life and it broke my heart when he left this world. Thank you for being so kind to me.