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Celestron 11 XLT on Losmandy G-11 Celestron C11 XLT

My main instrument for planetary imaging is a  Celestron 11 XLT on a Losmandy G-11 mount.
The C11 is the successor of the C8 for this purpose.

This system is really huge! When I first assembled all the components it got bigger and bigger, but I think it is still portable.


Click here for some additional "first light" pictures...




    
Celestron 8 SCT Celestron C8 Starbright

I also use a Celestron 8 SCT (203mm/2030 mm) on a Vixen Great Polaris German mount. The mount has electrical drive in both axis.

For long exposure imaging I have a  60/700mm refractor guiding telescope from Celestron.









    
Takahashi FS 102 APO  Takahashi FS 102 N Apochromat

I was able to catch one of the last Takahashi FS 102 N refractors (since this telescope is discontinued by Takahashi).

The FS is an air spaced doublet fluorite Apochromat (Fraunhofer design). The front lens is made of CaF2, a synthetic grown calcium fluorite mono crystal with excellent optical performance. Aperture is 102mm, focal length is 820mm (f/8).

The picture on the left also shows a 2" diagonal mirror and a 6mm Vixen LV eyepiece.


    
TMB LOMO 80/600  TMB-LOMO 80/600 Apochromat

My latest purchase is a TMB-LOMO 80/600 refractor (March 2009). This refractor is very portable and will be used for "grab and go" observations.

The objective is a triplet made by LOMO optics (Russia). With each lens, LOMO includes a test report with RMS and PtV values. For this telescope the RMS (at 546 nm) = 0,022 which results in a Strehl value of 0,981 (nearly perfect optics!).

The tube is from Germany with fully retractable dew shield cover. The focuser is a US-made Starlight Feather Touch with 1:10 reduction, so this telescope is truly international!
    
Zeiss Victory 8x42 T* FL  Carl Zeiss Victory 8x42 T* FL

I also use the Carl Zeiss Victory 8x42 T* FL binocular to travel through the Milkyway.












  Photo: Courtesy Carl Zeiss AG  
   

 Cameras
    
DMK 21AF04.AS an C11 The Imaging Source DMK 21AF04.AS

This little cam is used for high resolution imaging of the planets. The picture on the left shows the camera after a night of imaging, the configuration consists of the following components:

Back of my C11 and then a Baader Steel Track focuser, a 2" to 1.25" reducer, TeleVue 2.5x Powermate, 1.25" adaptor , Atik filter wheel with Astronomik L-RGB filters, T-Thread adaptor, T-Thread to C-Mount adaptor and DMK 21AF04.AS camera. The camera is connected to the laptop via firewire (IEE 1394) which is a high speed connection allowing a maximum of 60 fps of uncompressed data.


    
Philips ToUCam Pro Webcam Philips ToUCam Pro 740K

For planetary imaging I also use a Philips ToUCam Pro 740K web cam together with a Toshiba Satellite 2410 Notebook.

This is a very simple, but excellent planetary camera.

I've had some great results with this cam.







  
Canon EOS 450D Canon EOS 450D

The CMOS sensor has a resolution of 12.2 mega pixels.

One great advantage of this camera is the new "live view" function. With this function, the camera displays a live image on the LCD monitor, which allows you to accurately find the focus for the image.






    
CANON T70 Canon T70

The Canon T70 SLR is an analog film camera.

I took my first astro images with this camera.










    
 My observing site is in Germany at N 51°50' and E 09°08' approx. 150 m above sea level.

©1996-2009 Frank Brandl / Disclaimer


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