About the Author
Michael J. O'Brien worked as a Senior Engineer in telecommunications for 20 years before creating his own business repairing and building computers. Following this, he became a partner and designer in a merchandise design company. He currently works as a freelance photographer and amateur astrophotographer of deep-sky objects.
O'Brien took his first astronomical images in 1974 and proceeded putting a video camera on an 18" telescope in the 1980s. He ran an astronomy-based bulletin board called The Astronomers' Den for several years during that time. After a long break from the field to raise a family, he decided several years ago to delve back into the strange and modern world of astrophotography, educating himself on the many advances in equipment and software that had happened in the past 30 years.
In 1995, O'Brien made an 8-inch truss tube Dobsonian telescope. He built many electronic devices including an oscilloscope and a multi card I/O system for a P.C. before they were readily available. More recently, he built dew heater control systems for multiple telescopes, along with EQMOD adapter cables using a lesser known but more stable FTDI chipset, rather than the "Prolific" one currently in widespread use.