Equipment

I’ve starting putting together a collection of bits ‘n’ pieces and some are better than others so read on:

Below I’ve listed the equipment I have and I’ve tried to include images where these are available.

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Scopes

	Sky Watcher, Skyliner 250 Aperture: 250mm (10″) Focal Length: 1200mm Mount: Dobsonian Type: Newtonian
	Sky Watcher 114M Aperture: 114.5mm (4.5″) Focal Length: 1000mm Mount: EQ-1 Type: Newtonian

If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t have bought the dobsonian mount. The Newtonian tube is a great light catcher and is able to pick up very faint objects visually but if you want to do anything serious with astrophotography then you need a mount that is able to follow your target allowing for long exposures.

Perhaps one day I’ll remount the tube on a pillar with a Equatorial mount but for the time being I’m looking at making an equatorial platform that will add motor control to the dobsonian. This should be a project within my limited capabilities of wood working and electronics so I think I’ll tackle this as soon as I’ve finished the current project.

Update: See the Projects/Ty Du Observatory page, I did mount the OTA on an EQ-6, on a concrete pier in a roll-off-roof shed.

Cameras

	Atik 16ic Sensor: CCD (ICX424) Resolution: 659×494 Pixel Size: 7.4um x 7.4um Chip size: 5.79mm (H) x 4.89mm (V) Interface: USB 1 Peltier Cooled 16Bit ADC Arc Min Sky Width: 16.58 Arc Min Sky Height: 14.00 Arc Seconds/Pixel: 1.51 Magnification: 158.33x
	Philips SPC900NC Sensor: CCD (ICX098) Resolution: 640×480 Pixel Size: 5.6um x 5.6um Chip size: 4.60mm (H) x 3.97mm (V) Interface: USB 2 “compatible” Arc Min Sky Width: 13.17 Arc Min Sky Height: 11.37 Arc Seconds/Pixel: 1.23 Magnification: 197.48x
	Trust SpaceC@m 380 Sensor: CMOS (OV7620) Resolution: 640×480 Pixel Size: 7.6um x 7.6um Interface: USB 2
	Baxall Ice CM2XUTP/M Sensor: 1/2″ Sony CCD Resolution: 720×576 Pixel Size: 8.6um x 8.3um Interface: Composite Video
	Home Built 1004x Sensor: 1/3″ Sony CCD (ICX255) Resolution: 640×480 Pixel Size: 9.8um x 6.3um Interface: Composite Video
	Fujifilm S9500 Zoom Sensor: 1/1.6 inch Super CCD HR Resolution: 9M Pixel Size: Unknown Interface: USB
	Canon EOS 300d Sensor: CMOS Resolution: 6.3M Pixel Size: 7.4um x 7.4um Interface: USB and custom LX cable Arc Min Sky Width: 65.03 Arc Min Sky Height: 43.26 Arc Seconds/Pixel: 1.27 Magnification: 44.01x

Lenses etc

10mm LER bundled with 114M

25mm LER bundled with 114M

10mm Plossl bundled with SW250

25mm Plossl bundled with SW250

17mm Plossl bought of the Internet

2x Barlow, bundled with 114M

3x Barlow, bought from Astronomica

Baader Neodymium Moon & Skyglow Filter

Baader IR/UV Cut Filter

The lenses bundled with the SW250 seem to be a better build quality than those shipped with the 114M.

I found the 10mm can be a little too much power where the 25mm was not quite there, so bought a 17mm to give me something in between.

Since finding that I could stuff a webcam in the tube in place of an eyepiece I generally only use the eyepieces for alignment and to check the collimation.

Other

KWorld DVD Maker USB2.0 This takes a composite video input (or S-Video) and connects directly to a PC thorugh a USB cable. It ships with video capture software that will support PAL (720×576) and also scale down to other formats. I shopped around when looking for a frame-grabber as the difference in price is quite considerable. I finally settled on the K-World from Novatech which was less than £25.

 

DSLR Calculator for Arc Secs/Pixel etc here: http://www.astro.shoregalaxy.com/dslr_calc.htm