My Astronomy Equipment

An outline of what equipment I use in my Astronomy setup. This includes my telescopes, cameras, mounts, focusers, observatory, portable setup and home setup, etc.

These kinds of pages are most useful for those looking to buy similar equipment. If you have any questions feel free to email me.

For images of my equipment click here.

The Telescopes

My primary telescope is a 12" Meade LX200 (classic), used soley in my roll-off-roof observatory. I purchased this new in April 2001 after starting off with a 4.5" Newtonian telescope back in December 1999. In addition to the LX200 (4.5" is now sold) I have a William Optics Megrez 80, used as my travel scope and wide field imaging telescope, and a SkyWatcher 70x700 refractor used as a guidescope. For ultimate portability the 80mm Megrez refractor mounted onto a camera tripod can't be beaten for setup time and ease of use.

I have the usual array of accessories for the telescopes - heated dew shields, battery/power grid setup for use out in the field, filters & eyepieces, astro photography equipment, etc. All the usual stuff. I don't specialise in eyepieces, with only one TeleVue to my name (22mm Panoptic), largely because I focus on photography rather than viewing.

The LX200 is used in the observatory primarily for medium to high magnification digital photography, using my SBIG ST7-ME (see later for more info). My primary targets are galaxies, planetary nebula and comets, with the intention of expanding in to minor planet searching as time and skills permit. I have been very happy with the quality of my LX200 (classic), with very few mechanical issues, good PE, little backlash and no retrograde motion to speak of. For value for money I don't believe I could have chosen a better telescope in 2001. I have had similar success with the Meade Super Wedge, which I have found to be quite steady and easy to adjust. You will find mention of backlash problems and the like with the Meade Super Wedge, I haven't had an issue with these because of the techniques I employ to perform polar alignment.

The Megrez is used mainly as a portable telescope, mounted on a Losmandy GM-8 I purchased in June 2005. This provides a very nice imaging platform for wide field (both piggyback and prime focus on the Megrez) colour photography. I review the Megrez elsewhere on my site, read it here.

The SkyWatcher 70x700 I use only as a guide scope, usually with the Megrez on the Losmandy as guiding on the LX200 is typically done using the SBIG's second guide chip, not a guide scope. I review the SkyWatcher elsewhere on my site, read it here.

The 4.5" Newtonian (York Skyrover) was a very good telescope that I was quite happy with and sad to see go (economics required that it be sold). It's mount was of a significant quality for that range of telescope, and was what I have done a significant portion of my piggyback colour film astro photography on, usually with the Megrez mounted on the equatorial mount instead of the 4.5" OTA.

People often ask what telescope they should purchase as their first telescope. Many amateur astronomers who have been there before will respond with "A dobsonian". I differ here. I would ask, "would you even remotely consider astro imaging?" and if the answer is yes I would suggest one of these telescopes, as I believe a good quality 4.5" newtonian does provide a good enough platform to learn astro photography and acheive reasonable results. That's the experience I have had from my first telescope, the 4.5" newtonian.

The Cameras

Being so interested in Astro Photography it is only fitting that I explain the photographic components of my equipment. The primary imaging devices I use are (in no specific order):

The Pentax SP1000 was my first photographic addition to my equipment list. This has been used for most of my wide field film photography and is still (2004) used heavily by me for colour wide field and prime focus photography. While I enjoy the many improvements that CCD photography brings to astronomy I still enjoy the colour, high resolution, wide field views that film photography gives. You can spend thousands of dollars on CCD equipment and still not have a nice colour image that an old manual film camera will produce.

The Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000 was purchase in June 2003 for the primary purpose of planetary imaging. With the August Mars opposition just around the corner I was intent to get some high resolution photographs of the event (and was somewhat successful). Since then I have used the camera for images of Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, The Moon and The Sun. The web cam has proved to be an excellent photographic tool for these subjects, providing much nicer images to date than either the ST7-ME or film.

The SBIG ST7-ME was purchased in early 2004 primarily for the purpose of Automated and Remote astronomy, with the intent of using it on either the LX200 or Megrez for automated sky surveying. Without the colour filter wheel it is not of much use for astro photography of the artistic type. The intention is to equip it with the filter wheel containing OIII, Ha, UV, IR, etc filters. As it turns out I now use this parimarily for medium to high magnification astro photography of subjects such as galaxies, planetary nebula and comets. I still intended to explore minor planet discovery in more detail but time and skills don't permit this currently.

If you are considering an astronomy CCD camera there is a lot to think about and plan before purchasing. I tried this, and succeeded in some points and not in others. The ST7 has a very small pixel size, and very small chip. This makes it cheap by comparison to other astronomy CCD cameras (and that is a good proportion of the reason why I bought it) but also can make it challenging imaging targets with a telescope such at the 12" LX200 having a focal length of 3048mm @ F/10. This equates to less than 1 arc second per pixel. The advantage of this is that if you do have good viewing conditions, and a F/6.3 focal reducer, you can acheive some very high resolution/magnification astro photography, photographying small faint objects others may have trouble with. The ST7 is a great light bucket, it captures light with great sensitivity making it an excellent camera for those chasing the "faint and fuzzies".

The Canon EOS 300 is only used occasionally but is useful for it's 17mm lens. This provides stunning wide field views of the Milky Way. This camera gets more use for my landscape and macro photography (see other section of my website).

Portable Setup

With my portable setup I am usually either photographing with the old pentax camera, which I find to be a relaxing time as compared to the faster paced action of digital imaging in the observatory, or using the system visually for public viewing events with ASWA.

The losmandy performs flawlessly, with excellent PE correction, almost no backlash, stunning regidity and excellent weight capacity. I have used the Losmandy with a William Optics FLT 110 with absolutely no problems at all.

I expect my portable setup to eventually turn digital, as I would prefer, money permitting. In the mean time I do enjoy the simplicity of colour film photography piggybacked and prime focus on the Losmandy/Megrez combination.