Ben's Astronomy Equipment Under Construction

Telescopes & Mounts | Visual Accessories | Photographic Equipment | Eyepiece Tray | Observing Chair

Astronomers as a population generally fall into two groups: those that regard equipment as simply a means to an end, and those that relish in the gadgetry, sometimes for its own sake. Needless to say, I fall into the latter category. I love to swap ideas and tweaks with other astronomers. To that end, I've listed a little information about my current setup. Feel free to email me with questions, suggestions or other thoughts.

Telescope and Mount 8 inch Meade LX200GPS with UHTC coating Meade AC/DC Adapter & 12v Power Cable Meade Vibration Isolation tripod pads Peterson Mounting Assistant II Peterson Fine Focus Knob Peterson Focus Kit Peterson Clutch Kit Peterson Long Bolt TelRad Kendrick 8" Dew Shield Kendrick Dew Heater System for corrector plate, eyepiece, and Telrad Kendrick Deluxe TelRad Dewshield with mirror JMI 8" SCT Travel Case Custom lexan eyepiece tray (Thanks, Pat!) Kendrick Observing Tent

Visual Accessories Teleview Everbrite 2" Diagonal Teleview Nagler 31mm T4 "HandGrenade" eyepiece Teleview Nagler 22mm T4 eyepiece Teleview Nagler 16mm T5 eyepiece Teleview 2x Powermate Teleview 2" OIII Filter Teleview 2" -> 1.25" adapter Teleview SCT -> 2" Adapter / Extender Tube Lumicon SCT Dust Seal Meade 4000 Series Plossl Eyepiece Deal Milburn Deluxe Wedge, anodized black (in transit) ScopeStuff rails (2), counterbalance weights, PBCM, Laser Pointer Finder Bracket ScopeStuff 500ma green laser pointer Kendrick 8" full-aperture solar filter

Photographic Accessories Milburn Deluxe Equatorial Wedge Taurus Tracker III f/6.5 focal reducer f/3.3 focal reducer SBIG ST-4 Autoguider Meade 9mm Adjustable Illuminated Reticle Rigel Systems Blinking Reticle STI knife-edge Focus system for Pentax K-Cameras Canon 10D DSLR, Programmable Remote, ImagesPlus Photoshop CS

Quick-look / Traveler Orion ED80 Refractor Nikon 10x50 Binoculars Blaho Mount on Bogen Tripod Borg Eyepiece Turret Stellarvue C5 Case Mercury Systems Compression Ring Visual Back Televue Telepod Head Televue 4" Clamshell Ring Kendrick 112mm-122mm Solar Filter

Eyepiece chart

These figures are for the 2000mm f.l. 8" LX200GPS

	Nagler 31mm	Nagler 22mm	Nagler 16mm	Nagler 11mm (22/2)	Nagler 8mm (16/2)	Radian 8mm
Mag	65X	91X	125X	182X	250X	250X
AFOV	82 deg.	82 deg.	82 deg.	82 deg.	82 deg.	68 deg.
FOV

Wish List

• Accessories
• SBIG ST10XME CCD USB Edition
• 10mm TMB Super Planetary eyepiece
• Denkmeir II Binoviewer with 2x24mm Panoptics
• ToUCam Pro Webcam and appropriate PowerMate
• The Sky 6
• Sky Tools
• Photoshop CS
• Bucks Gears
• Hyrodgen Alpha Filter for narrow-band imaging
• Hartman focusing mask
• Televue 3-6mm Zoom Eyepiece
• Televue Radian 8mm Eyepiece
• Settings Circles for Telepod head for trip to Hawaii
• Other setups
• Teleview NP-101
• Losmandy G11 (or AstroPhysics mount, since I'm dreaming)
• Giro Mount for quick setup
• (TMB tube ruled out because:)
• No 35mm field flattener
• Supposed binoviewer advantage nullified because my eyes are bad, still can't reach focus w/o Barlow.
• 24" Starmaster Dob with GOTO
• 14" SCT on permanent pier / roll-off observatory
• Orion Intelliscope 12" Dob w/ setting circles (for quick deep sky views)
• Coronado Hydrogen-Alpha Solarscope (Keeping an eye on that PST)