The telescope originally came with a fork mount. I built a simple 2-D counterweight system to balance the various accessories I would attach to it. If you are interested in the details of the counterweight system, click here.
| Meade 10" Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope | |
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| I use a standard 10 inch diameter Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain
as my main telescope. I purchased it as an LX-50 model. You can get more
information on the telescope at the Meade website. I do prime focus photography
at f10 or at f6.3 with a focal reducer. I find that F10 is great for obtaing
good image size on small galaxies and planetary nebula while F6.3 works
well for the larger nebula and galaxies. I currently guide all of my photos
with an ST-4 autoguider. Initially, I manually guided my photos. I found
that this helped me develop a better understanding of the guiding tolerances
required to get good photos.
The telescope originally came with a fork mount. I built a simple 2-D counterweight system to balance the various accessories I would attach to it. If you are interested in the details of the counterweight system, click here. |
| Homebuilt 94mm f6 Refractor | ||
| I built a small 94 mm refractor using a surplus achromat lens. I use this telescope exclusively for astrophotography of larger objects because of its short 600mm focal length. I fabricated a camera mount/focuser to act as a camera support and precision focuser. If you are interested in the details of this mount, click here. This mount maintains the camera at the correct distance from the telescope for proper focus. This scope and the mount/focuser is attached to a Losmandy dovetail plate that lets me attach it very quickly to my Mountain Instruments MI-250 mount. I guide this telescope using an OAG/ST-4 that is held in place by the camera. | ||
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| MI-250 Non-GoTo German Equatorial Mount |  |
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| I now use a MI-250 German Equatorial Mount made
by Mountain Instruments.
I am very impressed with both the mount and the support supplied by Larry
Myers, the owner of Mountain Instruments. I would recommend it to anyone
looking for a heavy duty mount.
This mount is much easier to get polar aligned than the LX-50 mount with the superwedge was. The mount tracks very accurately, with a periodic error of under 7 arcseconds. It has sufficient carrying capacity to easily handle my 10 inch OTA. The telescopes are attached to the mount using Losmandy Dovetail plates. With these, I can switch telescopes on the mount in seconds. For photography, I have a very sturdy pedistal that the mount attaches to. However, for quick setup, I also made an adapter to attach the mount to my Meade field tripod. |
| ST-4 Autoguider |
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| Prior to purchasing the ST-4, I manually guided all of my photos. This taught me a lot about what is critical to achieve good astrophotos. However, I found that it was very difficult to maintain concentration when guiding for more than 30-45 minutes. Not to mention freezing in the cold. The ST-4 has been a wonderful investment. It guides very well and on very dim stars. Never loses its concentration. If I am tired, I can get a little nap while the photo is being taken. It is just a wonderful device and I highly recommend getting one. The biggest problem that I have had with it is ensuring that I have sufficient power available to power it all night, especially in the winter. |
| Off-axis Guider |  |
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| I use a Celestron off-axis guider with a Meade 12mm Illuminated Reticle Eyepiece to get a guide star set up for the ST-4. The reticle eyepiece I use has a power cord. This has worked very well. To power the reticle, I built a small power box that uses two D-cell batteries. This power box supplies 3 volts to the LED light source. My power box has a variable resistance pot in it that allows me to vary the brightness of the reticle. I have found this feature to be very important when trying to center or manually guide on dim stars. |
| Miscellaneous | ||
| For a camera I use a Nikon that
has replaceable focusing screens and viewfinders. I use the D-type focusing
screen in conjunction with the Nikon 6x magnifying viewfinder. To achieve
very accurate focusing, I use an 8X monocular in conjuction with the Nikon
magnifying viewfinder. This has been a godsend for achieving accurate focusing.
The focusing is aided immensely because the screen is very bright. With
it I have been able to see the Helix Nebula through the 95mm refractor
from a dark site
In the field, I power the telescope from a standard 12 volt deep cycle marine battery. To prevent any funny current loops, I have a separate 12V car battery for the ST-4. |
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