I have enjoyed amateur astronomy as an interesting and educational hobby for over 40 years. I have owned many telescopes over the years, beginning with a low-end Sears 3" Refractor in about 1960. I built a 6" Newtownian, including mirror grinding/polishing, while in high school. Soon after college I built telescopes using 12 1/2" and 17 1/2" inch mirrors from Coulter Optical, and owned a Criterion Dynamax 8.

A little over 10 years ago I bought a 30" Dobsonian made by Tectron Telescopes, and at about the same time bought a Meade 178ED 7" refractor. These were the first telescopes I used at my Northwestern Arizona location, where I built a home in 1992.

A few years later I was able to place an order for the 32" Ritchey-Chretien telescope that I now have, and it was delivered in February of 2001. The time requirements of my employment kept me from getting this instrument ready for astrophotography until March of 2003, at which time I began taking astrophotos using a 35mm camera and slide film. In May of 2004, I purchased an SBIG STL-11000m ccd camera, and have been using it since. While there are still some film photos on this web site, they are rapidly being replaced by the much higher quality photos taken with the ccd camera.

- Jim Misti

Misti Mountain Observatory contact: astronomy -at- mistisoftware.com