Wanted to show you all my gear. It's been a while in the making but I've finally got my setup to a point where I might start enjoying what we do rather than running into problem after problem. I spent a lot of time trying to make several different types of dob platforms but none where up to the job of imaging, quite obvious now..................but I am a newbie and the learning curve is steep! (vertical in some cases!)
Anyway, I've ended up with a modded 12" lightbridge on a G-11. The lightbridge is probably not the best imaging scope but once aperture fever takes hold.........I also like the idea of imaging straight onto the chip, no glass to go through seemed like a good thing. I've had to move the mirror up the tube about 30mm and use a motorized low profile focuser. This leaves me with about 8mm of in focus to spare. The plate for attaching the dovetail was my little creation, it's ultra solid and so far has shown no flex as it moves around the sky. The trusses have been tweaked to make sure they stay put, again they seem to be doing just that. The most important thing I found I had to do was upgrade the collimation locking screws to make sure the mirror didn't shift under it's own weight.
Guiding with the little 80 on Losmandys' side-by-side setup seems good, and that's my 900spc inside a bit of 50mm alli tube sticking out the back of it. I'm yet to test out long guides with this setup, but it should be OK.
Now all I have to do is learn the finer art of imaging! Keep posting everyone, I find it amazing the amount of knowledge you can find in one spot.
Yay! I finally have a polar mount I can image with. I'm so over not being in a position to be able to guide. My particular EQ5 was junk, the worms were terrible and it didn't have any electronics. Basic motor-driven EQ5 with 60 arc-sec PE - the imagers dream!
Anyhoo - picked up this brand new non-Gemini guy from BinTel today. Thanks Don, Mike & Michael!
Coming soon is an Argo Navis - push-to appeals to me.
Should be great with the C8 and little Tak guiding it. On occasion I'll put the Megrez 80 on and use it to guide, and image through the Tak - or vice-versa. If I put on the Megrez to guide the C8 as standard configuration, I can still use the Tak on the SkyPatrol-II mount at the same time. Can't wait.....
This and the new (2nd hand) 350D I bought this week (off to Hong Kong soon for some mods) will get the astrophotography juices flowing again.... or I give up!
Time for a update. After just a few scopes one more for the road.
Got this one of Lars. Sort a second hand EQ5 then re greased the mount it moves very smooth and drives well.
Notice the tripod! enginered from 25mm square section!
Scope is a Takahashi MT 160 Newtonian. Not many of these around.
Aperture 160mm F6. Has a F4.8 reducer and I have a F8 corrector on the way.
Scope is very well built and you can see its a Tak scope. Focuser is super smooth. No its not a huge scope but is big enough for me these days.
You may or may not know I recently moved to Australia from the UK. I'm a keen imager, and was influential in the Campaign for Dark Skies (CfDS) in the UK, as a Local Officer for Cambridgeshire.
I've had loads of different astro gear over the years, various Astro Physics and Bisque Paramount ME mounts, loads of OTAs, more CCD cameras than I can shake a stick at, adaptive optic units etc.
My current imaging rig that I've settled on is my Astro Physics AP1200GTO (best mount out there in my opinion - and I've tried the lot), Takahashi TOA150 (best refractor I've ever used) and SBIG STL1100M camera.
I also use the STL for wide field with a Zeiss 75mm SLR lens, and a Canon 300mm f/4 L series lens, and also a Pentax 75 SDHF - the worlds best astro imaging secret!
I'm also nearing completion of an 18" f/4.4 Dobsonian with a Mark Suchting optic.
Future plans are a major CNC engineering project to design and build a custom truss RC for those smaller DSO imaging tasks, and to build another observatory. I really miss the one I had in the UK!
Well I have the Lumicon off-axis guider in here - but they sent a 16" SCT attachment rather than a 2" extender for the 1.25" DSI - sigh. Still gear is starting to shape up!
I've had this Astronomy bug for most of my life and have spent over the last 30 years probably several thousand dollars on the hobby and been through three scopes even built my own scope and mount in the early years.
One thing I've noticed is that as a group we all appear to be equipment freaks.
Attached is a photo of my latest scope and even now I'm dreaming of another scope and mount for those retirement years.
