3. Astronomy
Telescopes and astrophotography.

Previous and Current Telescopes

 

Skywatcher 127mm Mak with a 1500mm focal length.

Skywatcher Skyliner 200P Telescope on a dobsonian mount - almost 2.5x the light gathering capability of the Nexstar.

Nexstar 130mm Newtonian on a GoTo mount - works well when I have time to align it properly, and it's easily transportable - sold in 2014;

Here are some of my Astronomy Projects

 

Why buy it if you can make it?

Observers Chairs 2017

Putting setting circles on my Dobsonian 2019

Barn Door Mounts 2015 to present.

 

 

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The Nexstar 130 telescope.

 

A simple camera mount constructed from a medium density rigid foam and held on with 50mm wide elastic straps. The old Olympus Trip camera is not used for photography, it's simply for illustration.

The next step on for the Nexstar was to build an equatorial wedge to improve guided photography and avoid field rotation.

Tracker # 3 was the modified bicycle wheel, while # 4 was a modification of my old EQ1 (clone) equatorial mounting.

# 5 is a well designed barn door tracker that works really well. So well that I have three of them and have sold several kits and assembled mounts.

 

Equatorial Wedge

Wheel Based Tracker

EQ1 Modification

Barn Door Trackers

Observers Chair