After Christmas 2009, I took delivery of a secondhand but hardly used SBIG ST4000XCM camera to complement my ST10XME, the intention being to use it for images with bright stars which would bloom horribly with my ST-10. Unfortunately it required several desiccant refreshes before it was usable, and in the meantime winter tightened its grip, leading up to the coldest snowiest period for 30 years. Although we occasionally saw some sunshine and blue sky, invariably the clouds thickened at night. So no first light by 11th January.
But here is a daytime photo of my back garden and Observatory under snow. Taken on 6th January 2010. (The Observatory and birdbath had already been cleared of snow the previous day!) And there was more to come - by the next day another 3 inches or so, and the level snow was almost 14" deep next to the Observatory path!
Of course these photos were not taken using the ST4000 - just my little Panasonic TZ5!
