Rowland Archer
Rowland is an amateur astrophotographer who found Voyager after trying almost every imaging automation program available. He was so impressed he became obsessed with spreading the word about this great product that very few of his fellow imagers knew about. He built an English language Wiki for Voyager and now is helping out with this website.
Why is Rowland smiling and holding a glass of wine on an astro-imaging software site? Why not 🙂 ? He likes building websites and enjoying a nice glass of wine with a good meal – one of his many website projects was WineDiningFun.com which provides information on wine dinners in the Raleigh / Durham / Chapel Hill NC region.
But back to astro imaging.
Rowland got his first telescope as a young teen. It was one of those Tyco chromatic aberration horrors on a wobbly tripod – no imaging with that thing! This whet his appetite enough to save his paper route money to buy an Edmund Scientific 6″ reflector on a real equatorial mount with a “sidereal drive motor.” Now we’re cooking!
Rowland got his BS degree in Physics and Astronomy from Vassar College in 1976, hence his Vassar1976 moniker on Astrobin. His senior project was building a stellar interior model in … wait for it… APL. It actually worked!
He then got an MS in Computer Science from MIT and like many folks, drifted away from his hobby interests and embarked on raising a family and enjoying a career as a software industry executive at numerous companies, including some time in the CEO’s seat.
A chance encounter at a Habitat for Humanity ReStore with a used Meade reflector rekindled his interest in astronomy, and as his wife Lana says, that was just the gateway drug to bigger and better things. He now images every clear night with two setups, one on a Paramount MyT, and the other on an iOptron CEM60. Depending on the target, the mounts may hold a Celestron EdgeHD 9.25, an Esprit 120mm refractor, or an Esprit 80mm refractor. Cameras are ASI1600MM monos and color, with Astrodon and ZWO filters. And of course, all automated by Voyager.
And maybe someday getting just one APOD – dream on!
He is excited about helping get the word out about Voyager and helping more fellow imagers enjoy its super reliable automation.
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