My current equipment:
Takahashi FSQ-106
What a great scope. Flat field,
wide field, built in Camera Angle Adjuster, Focal reduced Petzval design
non-N
with a 4 lens optics grouping. It
comes to focus easily through the camera. It's short and handles well
on the mount.
The 4" focuser is incredibly heavy, solid. I do get some vignetting
(hot spot) on 90 minute exposures. These can be
gotten rid of easily with an a-v layer in Photoshop. I got
it used on Astromart with Scopeguard case, tube ring, and Ext.-Q.
Visually, the scope is very nice. Wide field of view. It
does'nt work with a barlow and some eyepieces. No problem
with all my T.V. ep's though. I just picked up a 3mm Radian
and it's a nice combo.
Orion/Vixen 80 mm
f/11 I purchased this scope
after selling the FS-78 and 102 to get the FSQ-106 and needed a guide scope.
It was before Anacortes
started importing Vixen, so I had to go through Orion to get it.
The focuser is stiff but stout. Very little image shift while focusing
and it handles the ST-4 easily. I did drill and tap another hole in
the 1.25" adapter to hold the guider tighter. I use nylon screws.
I've had it up to 335 power in the back yard on the moon. Great optics for
a realitively inexpensive scope.
Takahashi FS-102
A great visual scope and
for prime focus photography at f/8 or f/6 with the focal reducer.
I also use the
Camera Angle Adjuster. This scope is
a joy to use. The camera comes to focus so much easier with
pinpoint star images than with the SCT
and has more light gathering ability than the FS-78. The only
drawback is it's length. It has
a large wind profile and a non-retractable dew shield. I'm eventually
going to sell this
scope and buy an FSQ-106N.
Takahashi
FS-78
As guide scope and prime focus photography. It weighs 6.6 pounds.
For photography I use the Camera Angle Adjuster
and the CA-35 adapter. A great scope for
photos or observing. Pinpoint
star images. I got the f/6 reducer for it for wide field shots.
Be sure to get the wide field camera
adapter to avoid vignetting
At f/8, it has the same field of view as the FS-102 at f/6.
I use the Tenba case for storage and
airplane carry-on.
Celestron C8 SCT For deepsky viewing., prime focus and eyepiece projection photography. I keep it in a Pelican 1650 case.
Losmandy
G-11
My third mount after the Celestron C8 Deluxe and Losmandy
GM-8. A solid platform for
this scope configuration. I mount
both scopes using a DSBS side-by-side plate to keep the CG lower.
The DR125 rings slip over the 4.5" dewshield
of the FS-78 just nicely and they are on a
DMM dovetail plate for easy balance point changes.
The RA appears to have very little periodic error
as I watch it while drift aligning.
An excellent mount for the price. The polar alignment scope is JMI
and it has
worked well after having the reticle aligned.
As for cases, I use a Pelican 1610 for the head,
cw rod, electronics, hand control and wiring.
For the tripod, I use a pro lighting tripod, padded soft case.
SBIG ST-4 Autoguider I
must say, it sure beats hand guiding. Combined with the FS-78 and the
G-11, the learning curve was'nt bad.
Figuring out the 'Calibration' settings was the toughest part. Calibration
settings for the G-11 seem to range
from 15 to 20 for both C-1 and C-2 depending on area of the sky.
This seems to give a movement of 7 to 10 pixels
in both the x and y axis duringthe 'Calibration' iteration with no
errors at the end. A movement of 10 is a good
target to shoot for in the iteration. It's at this point, if I don't
see
any appreciative movement on either
axis, that I know something is wrong. Sometimes it's a fogged
up CCD window.
It gets damp here in the Northwest and a freshly dried
out desicant ring is mandatory on those early spring
nights. Ive stopped baking the
desicant ring because I completely turned one to a crumbling bunch of
debris.
Now I just keep it in silica gel desicant
within an air tight container. On multiple day trips, I take
the ring out of the
guider and put it in the container during the day. So far no
frosting problems since.
Generally, everything works out fine
and I get guiding errors around 0-3. But if I spend the extra time
drift aligning,
the errors are minimal.
The mount is on .3x sidereal while guiding.
Canon F-1 35mm SLR
So far, no complaints. It's a manual camera with mirror lock up, bulb
setting and a good selection of focus
screens and finders. I use a Canon Waist Level Finder which is a 90
degree finder. Also, a Canon
Astrophotography screen. I'm slowly going to move to medium format
and CCD.
Film/hypering/purging
I'm now using Kodak Royal Gold 200. I tried it unhypered at
first, but after using some hypered by a friend,
I purchased a used hypering kit on Astromart and have been hypering at 50°
C for three hours. I have also
put a nitrogen purge system on my camera.
Minolta Dimage Scan
I obtained this scanner summer of 2001. I have only scanned a few
images. It does 35mm negs. and slides at
Dual II Scanner
2820 dpi resolution. It seems to have enough sensitivity to scan nebulae.
The software allows for manual
overide of all the settings. (ie. contrast, color balance, color
correction, resolution)
Wind Break
A three sided 8' on a
side x 6' tall conduitframewith8' x 6' tarps. Fantastic for those
marginal
times and a great place to sit on the 'forget it'
nights to just observe. (photo soon) It can also
be set up with only one side and two pieces
of frame set out as stabilizers. This configuration can be moved
around
easily to block any changing wind directions.