Some of my old, sold or retired equipment
- Vixen VC200LDG OTA
- In June of 2006 I traded the Meade LX200R OTA for a Vixen VC200L.
- arrival |
initial collimation issues |
mirror cell adjustment
- Meade 10" LX200R OTA
- In May of 2006 I purchased a Meade LX200R OTA. I could not get round stars so I returned it.
- arrival | problems
- Intes MN61 OTA
- In the early part of 2006 I made a very short-lived foray into the world
of "pure" reflectors. This was a nice scope but even after upgrading the focuser
I could not get a low enough profile to get the 350D to reach focus. I sold it
at about the time that the LX200R came in.
- small | large
- Orion ED80 Refractor
- I picked this one up off of Astromart, upgraded the focuser to a nice
two stage unit from William Optics and added Robo-focus
- small | large
- Canon 350D DSLR
- This picture also shows my custom wrapped cable. I was getting tangled
up in all the cables and decided to bundle everything.
- small | large
- Robo-focus Bracket for VC200L
- Details of the homemade bracket that I fabricated.
- details
- Vixen Flip Mirror
- I find this very useful for framing guide stars.
- small | large
- Vixen 60mm Extension Tube
- When not using the VC200L focal reducer this accessory give the necessary back focus.
- small | large
- NexImage Planetary Imager
- I am now using this camera for guiding and for planetary imaging. I modified my NexImage for long exposure.
- small | large
- Celestron NexStar11 GPS
- This was a great scope. It rekindled my love of astronomy and got me started
on this fascinating (and expensive) obsession with astrophotography.
- small | large
- Canon 300D DSLR
- I just switched to a 350D for the higher transfer speed and lower dark noise.
- Canon Shutter Control Cable
- The guts of the serial port controlled shutter release cable I made.
- image
- CGE Pier Plate
- I made an adapter plate out of aluminum stock to attach the CGE mount to my pier.
- cge plate details
- Red-dot finder
- I replaced the stock Celestron finder scope with a simple unity
magnification, "red dot" style finder.
- small | large
- Original Pier
- This is the pier I built right after buying my NS11 with the
plate at the top for alt-az mounting. Sometimes when I'm fed up with
computers, bias frames, focusing and all that I think that I may just
go back to this sort of setup.
- image
- Hartmann Mask
- I made this cool orange hartmann mask from a Home Depot bucket lid.
It fits the NS11 perfectly.
- small | large
- Home-made Wedge
- My dad helped me construct this super heavy duty wedge. It's
welded steel and only good for my latitude.
- small | large
- APT Wedge
- An outstanding adjustable wedge. I sold it when I went equatorial.
- view 1 | view2
- Meade Lunar and Planetary Imager
- I used this camera mostly for guiding but I've switched to a NexImage now.
- Guide Scope
- This is an 80mm f7 refractor from Apogee that was for
guiding and wide field observation.
- small | large
- Guide Scope Mount
- My first guide scope mounting hardware came from Scope Stuff.
- small | large
- Counterweights
- I got the rail and two 1lb. weights from Scope Stuff. This turned
out to be way to light to counter-balance the 80mm guide scope so I picked up two 2.5lb. Cap brand dumbell weights
from Academy, painted them black and added them on.
- small | large
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