Equipment

Telescopes:

  • Celestron Edge HD 11″ (Aplanatic Catadioptric)
    • Planetary Imaging at F/10 (2800mm), F/20 (5600mm) or F/30 (8400mm) with the native or Barlowed imaging trains.
    • Deep Sky Imaging at F/1.9 (540mm) with a Hyperstar imaging train
    • Deep Sky Imaging at F/7 (1960mm) with Focal Reducer
    • Deep Sky Imaging at F/10 (2800mm) with the native imaging train
  • William Optics Zenithstar 81mm (Apochromatic Doublet Refractor)
    • F/6.9 (559mm) native
    • F/5.4 (447mm) with 0.8x field flattener
    • Deep Space Imaging
    • Lunar Imaging
    • Lightweight grab-and-go
  • Orion XX12i Dobsonian (Newtonian Reflector)
    • F/4.9 (1500mm)
    • Visual Observations

Cameras:

  • ASI533MC Pro
    • Primary Imaging camera
    • 3008×3008 one shot color camera
    • 11.31×11.31mm Sensor
    • 3.76uM pixels
    • Read noise: 1.0e
    • Cooled
    • Sensor: IMX533
  • ASI224MC
    • Primary Planetary Imaging Camera
    • 1304×976 one shot color camera
    • 4.9×3.7mm Sensor
    • 3.75uM Pixels
    • Read noise: 0.8e
    • Sensor: IMX224
  • ASI120MC-S
    • Old Planetary Camera, trying to use it now as guide camera
    • 1280×960 one shot color camera
    • 4.8×3.8mm Sensor
    • 3.75uM Pixels
    • Read noise: 4.0e (ergh)
    • Sensor: AR0130CS
  • Under consideration for the future:
    • ASI290MM Mini – The ASI120 really stinks so far as a guide camera. Needs 10+ second exposures to see stars…. Seeing if removing the IR window helps. In daylight tests it seems like that might give me a ~30% improvement, but waiting until there is a clear night again to test and see if its sufficient in the short term or not….
    • ASI2600MC Pro – 24MP APC-C Sensor (23.5×15.7mm). Much larger sensor that would be nice for big things. Not big enough though that I shouldn’t be able to use my entire existing imaging train….