MY Setup - My first scope!

[CKemu]

This is it folks, my "little" baby! I'm a semi-pro photographer, and have for many years wanted a telescope to photograph the night sky and to enjoy the beauty above us that so many never really look at.

I don't really have a back yard, however I have known my neighbour for about 2.5 years now, and even lived with the family for awhile. She lets me use her back yard (liturally through a gate from my place) to observe and photograph the night sky.

The obvious setup is the telescope, a Meade LX90 8" GPS/UHTC/ACF do-hikey with a coffee grinder go-to mount.

The bag on the bottom right is an old camera bag I used for my DSLR. Nowadays it contains three weights for balancing, 26,14,6mm plossi's a 2x Barlow, Crayford Focuser, caps, cables, and a few odd tools, including a spirit level and head lamp.

My 70-300mm lens is visable on the bench near the eyepieces. After that comes the power pack and the bag on the left contains all my camera lenses, a 35mm f2 prime, an 18-50mm f3.5, and my favourite lens, which I will be using for some imaging soon, a gorgeous fisheye lens, giving me a full 180 degree FOV.

My wedge is missing a little spacer block which fills the cap between the edge of the wedge and the alt/az tweaker, the guys at "Telescope House" are trying to sort something out for me, which is most kind of them. I have also yet to experience polar alignment.

Polaris is "just" visable over my neighbours roof, so I can atleast use that as a reference. Tonight if it stays clear, I will be attempting my first photos of Saturn, but will be sticking to Alt/Az until my drift aligning eyepiece turns up, and lets be honest, you do not need polar alignment for photos of Saturn!

Anyhow, really love my rather expensive, and hiddiously addictive toy. Here's hoping this gives me many years of viewing, and here's hoping the skies clear up for all of us.

[collangm]

Nice photo's of an excellent telescope. This is currently sitting high on my list as my first scope as well.

Keep us informed on how you find astro-photography with this as I'm keen to expand into this field but have heard differing concerns over the type of mount (including the EQ wedge) for photography.

Gary

[CGolder]

Nice scope, big congrats and i hope you get years of enjoyment

[kris h]

Great setup hope you get clear skies ASAP

[JAO]

Nice scope, there will be lots to see with that bit of kit.

Clear skies to you.