Not the kind of star I usually talk about – a YouTube star!  Today I recorded a talk with Simon Tang of Woodland Hills Camera and Telescope.  OK, so I’m not really a star (yet), but it was fun.  You can find the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH-lMi4eOL8 (my appearance starts at 4 hours, 15 minutes in – it’s a very long video).

It also explains why I’ve been so busy for the last 7 months:  I’ve been developing a new product for Starlight Instruments (AKA Feather Touch), one of the most highly regarded manufacturers in the astronomy business.  The product is called “PowerHub”, and incorporates all the electronics you typically need at a telescope to support astrophotography.  The name derives from the most basic features, the distribution of data (via USB) and power (primarily 12VDC).  This greatly simplifies cabling between the telescope and the rest of the system.  Instead of separate power and data cables for each device you need just 1 power cable and 1 data cable (preferably of the USB3 type).  To complete the picture, PowerHub includes a few other things typically needed at the telescope:  A focus controller, dew heater control, and environment sensor (temperature and humidity).

I’ve been a big fan of Feather Touch focusers for many years, and first met Wayne (the guest in section 2 of the video) when I bought one of their focusers many years ago (I’ve had 3 of them over the last 10 years).  So it is very satisfying to be working with such a great company – one that shares my passion for high quality products for astronomy enthusiasts.  PowerHub is in the final stages of development, and we hope to start shipping it (at least on a limited basis) in October of this year.  As you might guess from the video, I have a lot to say about PowerHub, and will probably write more about it here in the future.

I did manage to get away for a few days at the August New Moon to do some dark sky astrophotography (and see old friends), but haven’t had time to process the images I captured.  This will probably continue to be the situation as PowerHub transitions from development to production, but I’ll do my best to post some new images here when I can.