Equipment
First telescope (2005):
I started with a simple Small Newtonian on a manual equatorial mount, but soon realised I needed something motorised.
Sold some years ago
2nd Telescope:
I bought an ETX105 and this held me in good stead for some time until I decided I wanted to get into
Astro-Imaging.
I managed to do a year's worth of planetary and lunar imaging with this telescope, but then realised if I wanted to get any further that I would need to progress to an EQ mount.
Sold to a school some years ago
3rd Telescope (2009):
So in early 2009 I bought myself a CG5 GT mount and a WO Megrez 72 APO and a 2nd hand modified webcam.
Unfortunately the 2nd hand webcam just would not work in long exposure so I wasted several months struggling with this before giving up and buying myself a Canon DSLR 450D.
From that point onwards, things started to grow as any Astro-imager will tell you, various bits of kit and accessories needed to be bought and my kit started to grow while my wallet got thinner.
The CG5GT and Megrez
I no longer have this set up
4th Telescope:
Bought myself a de-forked ETX125 so I had something with a longer focal length for planetary imaging.
I no longer have this
Observatory looming (see new website):
I soon decided that it was very frustrating taking a lot of time to set up the equipment ready for an evenings imaging only for the clouds to roll in, and and in any case it all had to be packed away again at the end of the evening, so I decided I needed some way of leaving the kit up permanently.
For a while I set the kit up on the patio and trailed the cables through the window so I could sit in the warm with my laptop. I managed to persuade my very accommodating and easy going husband to let me have an Observatory, and this arrived the following June (see the Observatory sub page).
5th Telescope/2nd Mount (2011):
I wanted something with a bit more Magnification, so I bought a 2nd hand Skywatcher ED120, but then I was told I might need a sturdier mount, so I bought an NEQ6 and sold the CG5 GT.
Here's a picture of me and the NEQ6 and ED120 at an Astro camp in Salisbury.
6th Telescope:
ST80 guidescope (blue scope) I sold a while back as I now use a finderguider
7th Telescope:
Shortly after this I realised that I very much liked the design of the ED120 with it's decent finderscope and mounting rings and decided to sell the Megrez for a Skywatcher ED80 so I could mount the finderscope piggy back.
8th Telescope (2013):
I was very pleased with the above arrangement for quite some time, but had always had a hankering for the lovely views I used to get through that first small Newtonian I had, and also thought I needed a faster scope for imaging.
I went to Astrofest in February and bought myself a Newtonian - Skywatcher Explorer 200 PDS which is apparently designed for imaging. But I needed to learn to collimate it.
Note the finder guider I now have sitting on the Newtonian, this is an excellent system and can be used as a finderscope as well so you can see where it is looking on the laptop instead of crouching in awkward positions to see where your alignment star is.
After finding a way to move my router, I now have a reasonably good WIFI connection to the Obsy so I can control things from indoors via Teamviewer.
Sold this as I found it too big.
Portable equipment for imaging abroad when I can't take my full rig.
Ioptron Skytracker with ball head and Atik460EX and Geoptik adpater.
I also use my DSLR on this set up.
Light Box for taking flats
Light box in position on scope.
I made a hole in the lid for the aperture of the scope
in fact I have two different sized scopes so I used two lids - one for each telescope
As it is cardboard I keep it indoors,
and at camp will keep it in a plastic bag.
Home made with a cardboard box and an EL panel from Earlsmann
I put opal perspex on top of the panel to keep it rigid and use varying numbers of sheets of typing paper inside according to which filter I am using.
9th Telescope - oh dear!!! (June 2013)
I decided to buy a small refractor with a low focal ratio for taking to Astro camps plus a focal reducer to bring down the focal ratio to something comparable to the Newtonian.
William Optics Zenithstar 71 ED APO @ F5.9
With 0.8 x Focal reducer this brings the FR down to 4.72
Guidescope mounting rings, these avoid flexure and I am now getting nice round stars even on 20 minute exposures.
10th Telescope
Skywatcher 130PDS (Newtonian)
I decided to buy another Newtonian but a smaller sized one.
11th Telescope
C6 Starbright XLT
for planetary imaging - my first SCT
6" f/10, 1500mm FL, aperture 150mm
Sold as I find planetary imaging too difficult, and needed lots of adapters to make work for DSO, so decided to re-sell it.
Cameras:
Modified Canon 450D DSLR (though I don't use it much now I am loath to part with it).
Atik314L Mono
Atik460EX Mono
Both have a WO FR x 0.8
Filters
Baader LRGB
Baader Ha, Oiii, Sii (7nm, 8.5nm, 8nm)
I use scope and camera combination according to which object I wish to image.
Atik EFW2
July 2014 I bought myself an electronic filter wheel Atik EFW2 as I was tired of having to keep going out to the
obsy to change the filter and sometimes the FW was in a difficult position so it was a job to see
the small window at the back to check which filter was in place.
Also because I am unable to take flats during the daytime because of light leak with the manual filter wheels.
I also wanted to be able to have Ha in the same FW indeed wanted all 7 filters in the same wheel
but it took me some time to find an EFW which would take all 7 filters that would fit the large format of the Atik383L.
However now I no longer have the Atik383 I have still kept the same EFW
2nd Manual filter wheel was replaced in early 2019 with a 2nd EFW2 (2nd hand)
I now have a full set of 1.25" Baader filters, plus a Baader 3nm Ha filter (to see if I like this better)
2020
Samyang 135mm F2 with Atik460EX
Sitting on top of the SWED80 and Atik428EX
No cables set up yet.