deepspaceplace.com

Telescope Summary

This table gives the focal length and other key specifications for each telescope.

Scope Focal Length Aperture Inches Aperture mm F Weight Kg
GSO 300mm f/4 Newtonian 1200 12 300 4 20
Takahashi TOA-130NS 1000 5.1 130 7.7 10.5
GSO 8" RC 1,625 8 203.2 8 7.5 *
AT8IN 800 8 200 4 9.8
William Optics Megrez 72FD 432 2.8 72 6 2.7
Maxvision MN152 (retired) 740 6 152 4.8 6.9
ED127 (retired) 950 5 127 7.5 9.97

* With 2" extension tube, OAG and guide camera attached

Previous scopes: Celestron Nexstar SE8

Camera Summary

The following table details the sensor and pixel size for each camera.

Camera Chip Type Sensor Size mm Resolution Pixel Size µm
Nikon D50 (retired) Sony ICX413AQ DX 23.70 x 15.60 3,008 x 2,000 7.8
QHY5 (retired) Micron MT9M001 1/2 6.66 x 5.32 1,280 x 1,024 5.2
Philips SPC900NC (retired) Sony ICX098BQ 1/4 4.6 x 3.97 659 x 494 5.6
Canon 500D   APS-C 22.3 x 14.9 4752 x 3168 4.7
QHY9 (retired) KAF-8300 4/3 17.96 x 13.52 3326 x 2504 5.4
STL-11000M C2 KAI-11000M Full frame 36 x 24.7 4008 x 2672 9
ZWO ASI120MM MINI Aptina AR0130CS 1/3 4.8 x 3.6 1280 × 960 3.75
ZWO ASI2600MM DUO Sony IMX571 APS-C 23.5 x 15.7 6248 × 4176 3.76

Field of View

Field of view in arc minutes. Some of the data in this table was measures by Astrometry and the remainder was calculated from the approximation formula (source: Digital SLR Astrophotography by Michael A. Covington, page 59)

FOV (degrees) = 57.3 * Sensor Size (mm) / focal length (mm)

Scope Nikon D50 QHY5 Philips SPC900NC Canon 500D QHY9 STL-11000M ZWO ASI120MM MINI ASI2600MM DUO
GSO 300mm f/4 Newtonian 68 19 13 64 51 102 x 68* 14 71 x 47*
Takahashi TOA-130NS 81 23 16 77 62 124 17 81
GSO 8RC 50 x 33 14 10 47 38 x 29 71 x 47* 10 50
AT8IN 102 29 20 96 77 155 21 101
William Optics Megrez 72FD 189 53 37 177 143 287 38 187
MN152 110 31 21 104 83 167 22 109
ED127 84 x 56* 24 17 81 65 126 x 85* 17 85

Arcseconds per pixel

  Camera
Scope Nikon D50 QHY5 Philips SPC900NC Canon 500D QHY9 STL-11000M ASI120MM Mini Guide Cam ASI2600MM DUO
GSO 300mm f/4 Newtonian 1.3 0.9 1.0 0.8 0.9 1.5 0.6 0.6
Takahashi TOA-130NS 1.6 1.1 1.2 1.0 1.1 1.9 0.8 0.8
GSO 8RC 1.0 0.7 0.7 0.6 0.7 1.1 0.5 0.5
AT8IN 2.0 1.3 1.4 1.2 1.4 2.3 1.0 1.0
William Optics Megrez 72FD 3.7 2.5 2.7 2.2 2.6 4.3 1.8 1.8
MN152 2.2 1.4 1.6 1.3 1.5 2.5 1.0 1.0
ED127 1.7 1.1 1.2 1.0 1.2 1.89* 0.8 0.8

 

Skywatcher EQ6 Pro

This mount was purchased with astrophotography in mind. It is in fact a standard EQ6 that has had the stepper motors, board and hand controller upgraded. That's why it's black and not the standard white color.
The mount has 3 modifications since I purchased it.

The most significant one is to use EQMOD instead of the hand controller.

Secondly I have reduced the noise it was making while slewing.

The other modification was to change the dovetail attachment from a Vixen style to a Losmandy style.

Paramount ME

I purchased this mount in December 2009 when I built my observatory. It's controlled by Software Bisque TheSkyX and gives excellent tracking. It's rated for payloads up to 68Kg.

Williams Optics Megrez 72 Doublet APO

I acquired this scope in December 2009. It's a very solid looking scope with beautiful CNC machines parts. I use this scope for imaging and guiding. The retractable dew shield does a great job keeping dew off the objective lens. As an imaging scope, I found that stars in the corners tended to be elongated, radiating out from the center of the image. This seems to have been fixed to a large degree by a Williams Optics 0.8 Reducer/Flattener II.

Contact me.