| Home |
|
Mount
& Pier
The
telescope mount is a Meade LXD75
purchased in 2007 atop a
custom made metal stand manufactured locally. The pier
is reinforced
concrete approximately 18"x18"x4' and buried about 3.5 feet into the
ground... a very solid platform. I've had several different
mounts and the Meade has the
best pointing accuracy. I call most other brands
"Go-Near" NOT
"Go-To" mounts. My goal was to be able to operate the
observatory
remotely and having a telescope that points to where you expect is
essential. My target is always within the field of view of my
CCD no
matter how far I slew across the sky. |
|
|
Telescope(s)
I
switch between two OTAs depending upon
the image that I want to get: An 8 inch (203mm) f/4.9
Newtonian and a 4.5 inch (114mm) f/4.0 StarBlast™ both made
by Orion.
Newtonians
don't dew/frost up like other telescopes, they have a built-in focusing
aid (the secondary mirror vanes produce diffraction spikes that allow
for precise focusing) and are, in my opinion, the best bang
for the buck (meaning a bigger aperture for the money).
Both newts are equipped with motorized focusing - also
from
Orion. |
 |
|
CCD
& Guider
The
CCD I am using is an SBIG
ST-402 with an internal RGB filter wheel. I use it without a
focal reducer on both telescopes. The 8 inch newt gives me a
field of view of about 24x16 arc minutes and the StarBlast™
gives
me a field of view of about 53x35 arc minutes. I guide using
an
SBIG ST-237A with the eFinder
assembly which has a FOV of 168x125 arc minutes. This
arrangement allows me to take exposures of a few
minutes at a time and sum the images to get total image times of up to
several hours if I want to. |
|
|
Computer,
Software & Network
I
use an older, hand-me-down PC that stays in the observatory all year
long to control the CCDs and mount. I use MaximDL
to image/guide and TheSky
mainly to identify stars (the image link feature is very useful).
If I am working in the observatory I typically use the hand
controller but if I am working remotely I use ScopeDriver
which works wonderfully with Meade and Losmandy mounts. I
prefer Macs so I use either CoRD or RDC
to remotely connect to the observatory and control everything from
inside - away from the mosquitoes. Often I use Equinox
Image to post process images. |
|
|
