Desert Stars Observatory

Rainy day, so I figured I would try to do some blog catching up work.

This scope has been around for a long time, purchased it about 13 years ago, used and not operating.  (failed motor board capacitor)

Since it is f/15 optical design, it is not normally considered a option in today’s world of fast astrophotography setups, but they do perform very well on both planets and deep sky (DSO’s with a little extra time.)

I admit, this scope has sat on the bench for a long time, C8’s, 90mm’s, LX200 10″, C11’s all getting a try.  But over the years, this kind of has remained a comfortable favorite to go back to.   It is a giant version of my ETX90.

The optical tube is the same length as my C11, and the same diameter as a C8, even though it is a 7″.     The matchup with the C11 is handy in that I can use my mounting rails on ether scope.

One advantage of the Meade “Gregory–Maksutov” design is that the secondary is smaller than other Cassegrain designs, thus giving a little edge in light gathering power.   They are also know for sharper contrast and details thanks to the long f/15 design.

The C11 has been recently pulled from the pier and the 7″ is going to have some star time.  First time it has been wedge mounted,  most of its previous life has been in Alt-Az planetary observing mode.   I am going to see how it does on some of the well known Missier objects as a DSO scope.   Interesting to note that when used with the f/6.3 focal reducer, it brings the scope down to about f/9.45 and seems to have a wider field of view when the same focal reducer is used on the older C8.   I have not worked out the math on that, yet, but it just seems like it is wider by a noticeable margin.

Piggyback is a 70mm spotter scope used for guiding, or wide field.

 

Click here to see some photos captured through this scope

 

 

 

Some other things…

Details of the Dec gear drive: