The
Rig
Our
current equipment lineup consists of the following:
Officina Stellare (formerly A&M)
14" f/8 Ritchey Chretien Cassegrain
Astro-Physics
1200GTO German Equatorial Mount
Apogee Alta U16M CCD
Camera
Clement Bellerophon Focuser
Astrodon LRGB and H-alpha
Filters
Astrodon Monster MOAG Off-axis
Guider
Over
the years we've also used...
Planewave CDK17 17"
f/6.8 Cassegrain
Ceravolo Optical
Systems
Astrograph
ASA N8 8" f/3.8
Astrograph
SBIG STL11000M CCD
Camera
Yankee Robotics Trifid-2 6303E
CCD Camera
SBIG ST-402ME Guiding
Camera
Astrodon ROAG Off-axis
Guider
Finger Lakes Instruments CFW-7 Filter
Wheel
Finger Lakes Instruments DF-2 Focuser
SBIG
ST-10XE CCD Camera
SBIG
ST-4 Autoguider
Parallax
Instruments 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
Stellarvue Nighthawk 80mm
Guidescope
Below
are photographs of some of our equipment setups...
Here
is the Officina Stellare 14" f/8 Ritchey Chretien
Here
is the ASA N8 Astrograph.
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