My imaging rig consists of various configurations:
a) Reflector - 8-inch GSO Ritchey Chretien rig
b) Reflector - 8-inch Schmidt
Newtonian rig
c) Refractor - 80mm Orion rigMounts:
EQ-6 Pro Equatorial Mount with Synscan
Controller
Barn door tracker (a home made job - cheap and
effective).
Meade LXD-75 mount ( Sold ).
Telescopes
8" f/4 Meade LXD-75 Schmidt-Newtonian
reflector
80mm f/7.5 Orion 80ED 80mm Orion
apochromatic refractor
80mm f/5 Orion 80ST 80mm Orion Short
Tube guidescope refractor
4.5" f/8 old Tasco Newtonian reflector (dust collector).
Cameras:
Canon Digital Rebel XT EOS 350D Digital
Ha-modified DSLR Camera
Canon Digital Rebel XT EOS 350D Digital
unmodified DSLR Camera
Mintron 62V1P-Ex
color security video camera
Mintron 13V1C
black and white security video camera
DMK21AU04.AS
planetary imaging monochrome camera
Panasonic NV-DS50 camcorder
(Mini-DV) firewire
25 yr old Pentax K-Mount SLR 35mm
film camera
Camera Lenses:
Canon EF 50mm f1.8 II (the
nifty fifty- a little plastic fantastic !!! )
Canon EF 200mm f2.8L USM II (very
good)
Pentax K-Mount film 50 mm f/2 (not so
good)
Pentax K-Mount film 28-200 mm zoom
f/3.8-f15
RICOM Video CCTV lens f/1.4 (miniature
very wide angle).
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Schmidt Newtonian Reflector Rig
Above: The 8" Schmidt Newtonian
telescope rides on the EQ-6 equatorial mount. Imaging with
the Canon 350D (unmodified) DSLR. Guided by the Orion Short Tube 80mm telescope and a
Mintron 13V1C video camera. This setup is how it was when I
had to set up each night in the driveway of my house.
Recently I
have built an observatory (see
here) to house the equipment permanently. |
On-Scope Accesories:
Orion Accufocus motorised focuser
Telrad 1x finder (you must get one,
or buy a similar pointing device)
Baader MPCC
Coma Corrector; (excellent coma corrector)
William Optics x0.8 field flattner/reducer
(very good coma corrector).Other Accessories include:
Baader
2" UHC-S Filter (Light Pollution/Contrast)
Astronomik
1.25" CLS filter (Light Pollution/Contrast)
IDAS clip-in front filter for Canon EOS (Light Polution/Contrast)
Lumicon Off-axis Guider
2 Stiletto Deluxe focusers (400 lines) - (1 Pentax K-Mount & 1 C-Mount)
Televue 4x Powermate (high quality corrected barlow)
Orion Shorty Plus 2x Barlow
Filters (polarizer, red, orange, blue, LRGB Astronomik, CLS Astronomik).
Bahtinov Mask (made by OzStockMan -
excellent)
Hartmann / Off-axis Mask (home made)
Chicken-Wire Diffraction Focuser
(home made)
Dew Shield (home made)
Dew Zapper (electric warmer to keep dew off the corrector plate)
Pentax K-mount to c-mount adapters (2" & 1.25")
C-mount 2" and 1.25" adapters and focuser snouts
An old 12" PAL Color TV
Compaq Evo PC.
Software:
Astrovideo, Registax, MaximDSLR, Cartes du Ciel, MS-FrontPage,
Cannon Camera Window and Zoom Browser, MS-Image Composer
ACDSee. |
Guang Sheng Optics (GSO) 8-inch Ritchey Chretien Reflector Rig
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