The Rig

 

Our current equipment lineup consists of the following:

ASA N8 8" f/3.8 Astrograph

A&M 14" f/8 Ritchey Chretien Cassegrain

Astro-Physics 1200GTO German Equatorial Mount

Yankee Robotics Trifid-2 6303E CCD Camera

SBIG ST-402ME Guiding Camera

Finger Lakes Instruments CFW-7 Filter Wheel

Finger Lakes Instruments DF-2 Focuser

Astrodon LRGB and H-alpha Filters

 

Over the years we've also used...

SBIG ST-10XE CCD Camera

SBIG ST-4 Autoguider

Parallax Instrument 12.5" f/9 Ritchey Chretien Cassegrain

Celestron C-11 Schmidt Cassegrain

William Optics 4" f/8 Apochromatic Refractor

Stellarvue SV152 6" f/8 Apochromatic Refractor

Stellarvue SV4 4" f/6.4 Apochromatic Refractor

Stellarvue SV102T 4" f/8 Apochromatic Refractor

8" f/4.5 Newtonian

 

Below are photographs of some of our equipment setups...

Here is the ASA N8 Astrograph.

Here is the A&M 14" f/8 Ritchey Chretien

This is me with the system we began using for astrophotography in 1994: a Celestron C-11, an Astro-Physics 1200 German Equatorial Mount, and a home-made aluminum tripod. One thing I've learned is that the mount needs to be "overkill" compared to the telescope. This photo demonstrates what I mean!

Photo by Tony Hallas

Here is the Parallax RC and A-P 1200GTO, taken from the Mt. Pinos parking lot.

Photo by Grant Hiestand

 

Here's the 8" f/4.5 Newtonian at the Hallas Observatory Annex, in Foresthill, California. To the left is Tony's 14.5" f/8 Classical Cassegrain (pre-RCOS upgrade) in his roll-off roof observatory.

Photo by Bill Williams