My Amateur Astronomy to Oct 1, 2000
?? Can technology do justice to the images of the
great master ??
Recent
changes in my equipment after Oct 1, 2000.
I have always had an interest in astronomy, When
I was a young child I would lay on my back in the yard for what seemed
hours on warm summer nights looking up into the heavens. Most of that time
I lived in various cities in Texas. I can remember how black the background
of deep space was behind the stars. Now we have to make a strong effort
to find such dark sky sites for our astronomical enjoyment. I would like
to encourage everyone to do what they can to help in reducing light polution
in our beautiful night skys. My first look through a telescope was my cousins
tiny Sears reflector. He trained it on saturn and I was quite impressed.
I eventually accidently burned the telescope while trying to enjoy viewing
the sun with the thru-the-lens solar filter. Well the bug finally struck
me again 33 years later, however, I will only use good solar filters in
front of the telescope :-)
I would like to describe some of my equipment
(note: the views are somewhat distorted in curvature due to the fixed lens
webcam camera used in the digitizing process).
After some serious thought I opted for the Celestron
Celestar 8inch Deluxe SCT. 
Celestron
is well known for their many years of innovative astronomical equipment
which has elevated them to being a leader that others follow. I guess it
shows that I like Celestron. The Deluxe model has an improved worm drive
with a larger gear set than its predecessor. It has Programmable Error
Correction (PEC) built in and a much sturdier tripod and wedge. The declination
motor and hand controller is included. The finder scope is the 9x50 with
a 5.9 degree field of view. It could have had a polar alignment marking
added to its x-hair reticle. Overall this is an excellent telescope for
astrophotography. The model I purchased included the Fastar optics add-on
modification. All 8inch models after about June '98' are supposed to come
Fastar ready. This SCT is focal length f10 and the Fastar optics option
makes it a f1.95. With the Celestron / SBIG Pixcel 237 camera I will discuss
later, the full resolution capture goes from (8.0 x 6.0 ^min) at f10 to
(41.1 x 30.8^min) at f1.95. As the celestron web site shows, the Fastar
will enable capturing the entire M31 (190 x 61 ^min) galaxy in a four frame
mosaic Mathematically it would take an 8 frame mosaic at fastar's focal
length. In either case, it is a large step from f10 to f1.95.
As shown the Pixcel 237 camera conviently attaches to the visual back.
This image also shows the Celestron f6.3 focal reducer attached. With this
configuration the tube will still rotate the camera through the base of
the fork with clearance of about 1 1/2 inches. This might not be possible
with an R.A encoder mounted at the center of the fork base as Celestron
provides with their Astro Master digital setting circles computer. Also
the tele-extender or t-adapter option is too long to clear rotation throught
the fork center. If the extender's were to be used simply unscrewing the
1.25inch adapter and screwing them into the front of the camera is all
there is to it. An overall view
shows the tube and camera together.
The Pixcel 237 CCD camera. and CPU. 
My accessories
and modifications to Oct 1, 2000.
Recent
changes in my equipment after Oct 1, 2000.
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