Ad Astra Observatory

This is the latest iteration of the imaging rig.

Now that there’s a second digital camera in the house, this photo actually shows the D70 in situ for the first time.

The main imaging scope is a Celestron 8” f/10 SCT, Kate. Kate has a Virtual View installed, which allows the D70 to be rotated to help frame the photos.

Kate shares time with Veronica (the 8” f/5 Newtonian) as the main imaging scope.

Both Kate and Veronica have Robofocus motors installed, which makes focusing a much more straightforward task.

This photo was taken on the first night that Pumpkin, the new Astro-Tech 66mm f/6 ED refractor was installed as the new guidescope, replacing Wobble, the venerable ST80 refractor that I’d pressed into service in 2004.

Pumpkin will spend most of the time as a guidescope, but will occasionally get used as an imaging scope,
mostly for the small handful of giant DSO targets, like M31, NGC7000, the Veil Nebula, etc. Wobble didn’t make a good photo scope, but Pumpkin is turning out to be not too bad. Wobble has been turned into a spotting scope, and will be used primarily for camping. All of this is atop the new (to me) Losmandy G-11 mount, which has really pushed my astrophotography capability into new territory. It’s ever so much more stable than the CG-5GT that it replaced.