Show us your Cat

[Davey-T]

Mines under there somewhere 😂

Dave

[Peter Drew]

15 hours ago, Captain Magenta said:

I bet that would surprise the average vet.    

[xtreemchaos]

her you go f8 😉.

[Nakedgun]

15 hours ago, Davey-T said:

Mines under there somewhere 😂

Dave

 

Cable management is for sissies!

[garryblueboy]

My last one it was a beast 

Edited March 27, 2020 by garryblueboy

[Nakedgun]

6 hours ago, garryblueboy said:

My last one it was a beast 

 

My first cat was this beast, as well, circa 2000. I don't have any scanned photos of it, currently. Ran it on a G-11, and kept it through the 2003 Mars opposition, but I'm not an imager and without an observatory it became just too much to deal with. Sold it to a guy up in Anchorage, Alaska.

[Nakedgun]

After selling my C-14 I downsized to the C-Nine-Two-Five in April 2004 (a little dusty just now).

 

I use it primarily for planetary observing, so it doesn't get out as much as some other scopes I have.

 

Denkmeier binoviewer along with their SCT locking diagonal attachment completes it.

 

Close-up of the interface:

 

I really like this size instrument, it seems the sweet-spot for SCTs.

 

 

[Paul M]

@Nakedgun I understand these scopes weigh an awful lot. But that doesn't look like a lot of counterweight!  Was the scope just posing in minimalist mode? 

 

 

[sloz1664]

Can I throw this in the mix. TAL 200K Klevtsov f8.5.

 

Steve

 

[Nakedgun]

2 hours ago, Paul M said:

@Nakedgun I understand these scopes weigh an awful lot. But that doesn't look like a lot of counterweight!  Was the scope just posing in minimalist mode? 

 

 

 

Paul M, 

That is garryblueboy's rig.

[Nakedgun]

1 hour ago, sloz1664 said:

Can I throw this in the mix. TAL 200K Klevtsov f8.5.

 

Steve

 

 

Looks to be a robust mount you have, there. First I've seen one.

[Paul M]

1 minute ago, Nakedgun said:

 

Paul M, 

That is garryblueboy's rig.

Darn it! I double checked who I was tagging too, so I thought!

[RT65CB-SWL]

I have a feline feeling this topic has deviated from catadioptric telescopes; to things that go "meow!" - nice portrait of Smegul by @xtreemchaos

 

Edited March 31, 2020 by Philip R

[xtreemchaos]

thanks Philip ,im sorry i had humor lapse 😉, i get them more and more as the world gos mad 😀. some nice scopes in this post i hope to own one one day. yes stay safe everyone, ive been in lockdown 3 weeks today and im still not bored. clear skys. charl.

[sloz1664]

16 hours ago, Nakedgun said:

 

Looks to be a robust mount you have, there. First I've seen one.

Yes it's the Avalon Linear Reverse Mount, fully belt driven and no play in both axis whatsoever. The mount has never lost a sub. But I've lost countless.....

Steve

[garryblueboy]

19 hours ago, Paul M said:

@Nakedgun I understand these scopes weigh an awful lot. But that doesn't look like a lot of counterweight!  Was the scope just posing in minimalist mode? 

 

 

 

There is another 9.5 kg weight that goes on not shown 

[rkelley8493]

Here's my first real scope, Meade ETX-125. I really enjoyed this little scope, but ended up selling it about a year ago. It just wasn't getting as much use since I added a couple other scopes to my arsenal.

 

 

Edited March 31, 2020 by rkelley8493

[Craney]

My Orion Optics (UK)  140 Mak.   with SW  Equinox80 as a guide scope.    

[Nakedgun]

I dug through some old photos and found this 20-year-old snap of my C-14, along with my wife, who accompanied me on an observing trip to the Kofa Wildlife Refuge in western Arizona. Sold this beast sometime after the 2003 Mars apparition.

 

Bought my C-9.25 soon after, and had a C-5 also, which I held onto till around 2007, I think, and then sold to a colleague whom I introduced to astronomy . Never took any pictures of the C-5.

I always wondered whether a C-11 would give enough boost over the 9.25 to make it worth having so I bought one to compare. It did not make me want to unload the 9.25 and was heavy enough to push it into the "for sale" category. I did not own it long, and this was another scope I never took any photo of. Sold it to a guy in Australia. So, the 9.25 was my only SCT until I thought I should have a smaller, more agile unit of the same type for use on a smaller mount and began to look at the C-8. They went on discount in April '13 and that was all the encouragement I needed.

 

 

This unit was made in China (I think my first SCT to come from there, can't remember where the C-11 was made), and I have no complaints about the views produced by it.

 

Added an 8x40 finder as the 6x30 factory finder was not adequate for my visual needs, along with a Rigel.

 

Pretty sure I won't be buying any more SCTs, but I sort of wish I'd kept the whole Celestron lineup - that's the collector in me talking, now.

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

The pocket rocket Skymax 102 had it's first proper run out tonight. Happily splitting the Double Double pairs at 325x with a cheap Ebay special 4mm 'TMB II' eyepiece and still sharp. 

Edited April 25, 2020 by ScouseSpaceCadet

[Nakedgun]

Clear

32 minutes ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

The pocket rocket Skymax 102 had it's first proper run out tonight. Happily splitting the Double Double pairs at 325x with a cheap Ebay special 4mm 'TMB II' eyepiece and still sharp. 

Clear skies? Was clear here, this week, now the weekend is a humbug.

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

11 hours ago, Nakedgun said:

Clear

Clear skies? Was clear here, this week, now the weekend is a humbug.

Yes last night was clear, but as usual hampered by city light pollution lighting up the sky, and the phone camera night vision mode highlights on the conservatory and fencing, the effect of a council LED lamp 20 metres behind behind me. 🙄

 

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I have two cats. In the background you can see th Trusty old Celestron C8 on Vixen Great Polaris mount. I usually have a 14x70 finder scope attached to it as well. It is my main visual and planetary imaging scope. I have had it for nearly 25 years, so it must be doing something right. In foreground you can see my Meade SN6 6"F/5 Schmidt-Newton on a Vixen GP-DX mount. It has become my main comet sweeper and DSO imaging scope. Got this OTA for just €165 second-hand in January 2020. 

Just some imaging results: Jupiter with the C8

DSOs with the SN6

Leo Triplet

M101

M13

I think I will hang on to these scopes for a while. 

[John]

If the schmidt-newtonian counts as a cat then does the mak-newtonian ?. I used to have this Intes MK61 150mm F/6 mak-newt but Orion (USA) branded. Superb planetary and lunar scope with a tiny central obstruction:

I've also owned a range of other CAT's in the past, eg: Nexstar 5, Nexstar 8SE, Celestron C5 (pictured below), Skymax 127 and 180 at some point. One of the nicest was this older Celestron C8 Plus which is also pictured below. No CATS in my scope fleet currently though

 

[Ags]

2 hours ago, John said:

If the schmidt-newtonian counts as a cat

It's not a Cass but it is a Cat.