Equipment

Mounts

• Mesumount 200

This is my main mount and permanently set up in my observatory. Reasons for picking this friction-drive mount is its high tracking accuracy with a very small periodic error (<3 arcsec peak to peak). This is very convenient for photography purposes. Next to that I was able to purchase this mount at the introduction price which makes it an excellent value for money. More info here.

• Vixen GPD

This is my ‘grab and go’ mount. Not that easy to grab but is has gone to a lot of places.

Telescopes

• Astrosib 10″ f/8 Ritchey – Chrétien Astrograph

This narrow field telescope is used for deep sky photography purposes only. It delivers a nice flat field over a large area. This model has an exceptionally large image circle of 80mm diameter. Astrosib telescopes are renowned for their excellent optics. More info here.

• Takahashi FSQ106ED
  

The Tak is my main imaging refractor. I recently upgraded it with a Robofocus motorized focuser. More info here.

• Celestron C9.25 f/10 Schmidt Cassegrain

The C9.25 was my main planetary and lunar telescope for quite some years. I upgraded it with a Moonlite focuser. Since I acquired the C14 I don’t use it that often anymore. But I still keep it for when seeing conditions are not that good. More info here.

• Celestron C14 f/11 Schmidt Cassegrain

The second hand C14 is my main planetary and lunar telescope since 2014. More info here.

• William Optics Zenith Star 66mm Petzval ED
  

A nice little refractor which I used to have as a guiding scope. Now I use it occasionally for widefield stargazing.

Cameras

• QHY9 (Alccd9)

My deep sky imaging camera, the QHY9 – KAF8300 monochrome CCD, 2-stage peltier cooled and with an automated filter wheel. More info here.

• Imaging Source DMK21AU(618) and DMK41AU02
  

These funny blue blocks are my planetary, lunar and solar cameras. The DMK21 used to be the standard AU04 version but I upgraded it with the much more sensitive icx618ala chip. The DMK41 has a larger CCD and is mainly used for making mosaics.

Filters

• Solarmax 60mm Ha filter

My solarmax filter is a pre-Meade model. It is solely used for solar H-alpha viewing. It has a passing bandwidth of 0.7 Ångstrom and thus blocks the sunlight for about 99.99%. It comes with the BF10 blocking filter.

• Color filters 2″ R, G, B and L from QHY
  
• Narrowband filters from Astronomik
  • H-alpha 6nm 2″
  • O3 12nm 2″
  • SII 12nm 2″

Eyepieces

• Televue Panoptic 35mm
• Televue Nagler 20mm type 2
• Televue Nagler 12mm type 4
• Televue Nagler 3-6mm zoom
• Vixen ‘silvertop’ Plossl 26mm
• WO spl 12.5mm

Past Friends

• Mounts
  • Losmandy G11 with Gemini v4
• Telescopes
  • GSO RC8
  • William Optics FLT110
  • Vixen VMC200
  • Vixen FL102s
  • Celestron C8
  • William Optics Megrez 110ED
  • Meade LX90 LNT 8″
  • Televue Pronto 70mm
  • Meade ETX70
  • Dobson Darkstar 6″
• Cameras
  • QHY8 (Alccd6)
  • Canon Eos 20D(a)
  • Meade LPI