Our monster Dob: a 28" aperture Starmaster
Dobsonian with Sky Tracker goto drive system.
It's over 10 feet tall when aimed straight up.
Installing our new Meade
16" LX200R, a larger and newer version of our old 12" LX200.
This scope
is
on a fully computerized mount. Besides having built-in automated
pointing ability to any of over 147,000 celestial objects, it can also
be
operated via computer in conjuction with a wide range of astronomical
software.
We can even operate it remotely, with various digital imaging equipment
attached, from any computer connected to the internet.
(This scope has since been
replaced by the 16" LX200R. I left the picture up because it
shows us using the H-alpha filter.)
Russ shows some Boy Scouts a view of the sun in our (old) Meade12"
LX200 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, here equipped with a Daystar
.6
Angstrom Hydrogen-Alpha filter. Besides the sunspots visible
in normal white light filters, this filter also shows solar flares,
prominences,
and many other details.
Click
here for photos we've taken through this filter.
The moon wasn't up, so we kept an eye out for UFOs while waiting our
turn on the H-alpha filter.
This scope is a Meade
16"
Starfinder Equatorial Newtonian. This scope can be operated
manually
or with Meade's Magellan
II computerized pointing system.
Both scopes are mounted on Astro
Piers by Le-Seur Manufacturing.
Our new refractor: Buck Harley
(1945-2007) donated his Meade 7" ED apochromatic
refractor to
PGO.
It's shown here on an adjustable-height pier, in the new domed observatory building we
built at PGO.
Some images Buck took with it are in our astrophoto
gallery.
Our Oberwerk25/40X100
Binoculars (don't let the German name fool you- they're Chinese
military
binoculars) on a parallelogram-type Millenium
UniMount from Universal
Astronomics. This type of mount allows raising or lowering
the
binoculars without changing the aim, so that different people can view
the same object without re-aiming.
Other Equipment:
Celestron 100mm
f/5 refractor telescope, usually used as a guidescope on the 16"
LX200R.
Donated by Dan Allbaugh.
Meade 416XTE
CCD Camera with 201
XT autoguider and 616
Color Filter Wheel- very light-sensitive astronomical digital
camera, on loan from John Mahony.
Apogee AP47p CCD Camera.
This camera has a 1k X 1k thinned, back-illuminated chip, and -50°C
cooling. A substantial improvement over the Meade 416
camera. The Apogee camera is loan from Purdue, in exchange for
hosting occasional group viewing nights at PGO for their astronomy
classes.
SAC IVc camera,
which is a Logitech webcam in a container designed to attach to a
scope. Donated by Buck
Harley, who also added a Peltier cooler to reduce noise in the
image. Modified for long exposure (deep-sky imaging) by John
Mahony. Then later put in an uncooled box, to make room for:
(2)
Phillips
TouCam 740 webcams-
a remarkably effective way to get very high
resolution
planet images. One is on loan from John Mahony, and is used for
planet imaging. The other was donated by Buck
Harley. The
Toucam has far fewer "hot pixels" than the SAC/Logitech camera Buck had
donated earlier (see above), so I modified this Toucam for long
exposure and put it in the cooled container formerly occupied by the
SAC, which is now in a simple uncooled metal box.
Astrovid video imaging system-
donated
by WVAS president Ed Harfmann.
Several computers, donated by various individuals.
DSL internet connection, courtesy of the Mulberry
Cooperative Telephone Company.
Cartes du Ceil (Sky
Charts)-
excellent freeware star-charting/telescope pointing software.
Satellite Tracker-
freeware
by Brent Boshart used to direct the LX200 to track
satellites.
The picture of the International Space Station on our home page was
taken through the old 12" LX200.
Praktica 35mm film camera body with 50mm f/1.8 and 200mm f/3.5
lenses,
on loan from John Mahony. The lenses can also be used on the CCD
camera.
A Night Vision scope, donated by Buck
Harley.
An assortment of Barlow
lenses, focal reducers, and camera adapters, including the Lumicon Giant Easy Guider.
An assortment of wide-angle
eyepieces and a Binoviewer,
by Tele-Vue.