Patrick wrote;
Just to clarify, you took it in Australia while sitting in SLC. Is that correct?
Yep, that's right. It's a little anispectic for an astronomy experience, but you can grab some interesting captures for practicing image processing. Definitely cheaper that a plane ticket to Chile. GRAS is pretty pricey - minimum of $40 a month, but I've decided to subscribe for a couple of winter months just for the imaging practice. The main alternative - Slooh - is much cheaper - $25 for six months - but is (1) never really working and (2) is a crippled consumer experience. The GRAS interface has an advanced option to control pretty much anything an advanced imager would want (Schuler filters, Ha, etc). I've also took an image of part of the Small Magellanic Cloud that I will process and post later. The Tarantula Neb in the Large Magellanic Cloud is an interesting image processing challenge. The base exposure is 300 seconds but the ratio between the cloud feature (2000 ADUs) and the bright central nebula (50,0000 ADU) is 25-to-1. Mostly for me, it is a convenient way to practice image processing over the cold winter. (Gotta handit to David - driving down to St. George to capture images). Through the Mars opposition on Jan 14, 2010, I'm planning to use Slooh and Gras to take a time series of Mars approaching. (It's been done before by some uber-imagers, but it looks like a fun imaging project.) Clear Skies - Kurt