Celestron Edge HD 11"
After a bout of aperture fever, I acquired the Edge HD 11" SCT. Its focal length is 2800mm for deeper reach and as a bonus shaves 5 lbs. of weight compared to the Meade it replaced. My goal is to go deeper and pull more detail from galaxies than I ever have before. My comparison photos showed that the background is indeed flatter than the Meade ACF optics and the stars are better formed in the corners. Increased magnification requires better guiding and seeing conditions, so I drive to darker skies and pay a lot of attention to balance.
IOptron CEM70
This is my primary work horse. The design is somewhat unique among equatorial mounts because the dec axis is split into two sections. Other manufacturers are starting to copy this design. The practical impact is less strain on the north tripod leg and a lower overall OTA height. The mount also has some great features, such as an integrated usb hub and built in polar camera to plate solve the north celestial pole for polar alignment. The Tripod is from the Celestron CGE. It's legs are a full inch wider than the Ioptron tripod. You could park your car on it!
TS 130 APO
The TS Optics 130 APO features FPL glass from the Ohara Glass Factory. I have found this scope to be much more forgiving in terms of guiding than the bulky SCTs and any guide scope produces round stars without much effort. The 910 focal length is a nice middle ground to capture larger field of view, but it can still pull in the detail where it counts. I have paired this with a mono camera and filter wheel in order to add Ha and OIII data to the color data. M81 & 82, the Crescent and Tulip photos were taken with this scope. It is proving itself to be a very versatile and easy-to-use photon slayer.
SX Adaptive Optics
This is the Starlight Xpress Active Optics system. It is designed to correct imperfections created by moving air masses in the atmosphere at a very high rate of speed. Inside is a coated piece of glass surrounded by motorized actuators. As the position of the guide star in the off-axis guider changes, the angle of the glass changes ever so slightly but very quickly to redirect the incoming light. My guiding error was reduced to less than half a pixel using the old CGE mount. With the Ioptron mount, I have been using both AO and a piggyback scope together. This requires 2 instances of PHD guiding. It does work believe it or not.
Meade LX850 10"
I keep this image mainly for sentimental value. This scope was sold to a gentleman in New Mexico, who plans to use it for public outreach. Most of what I know was learned from long nights in the field behind the LX850 and many of the images on these pages were taken with this scope. I regret selling it. It rode on the Celestron CGE Mount, which was my first high capacity equatorial mount. I had to learn about a number of new concepts, like a meridian flip and plate solving. The CGE was rock solid and extremely heavy, which made it a very stable for the bulky LX850. I easily put 50 pounds on this mount night after night and it didn't flinch. I will miss using this mount, but I won't miss lifting it into my car at 2am.
