May 2021:We have been doing systems integration work on the following telescopes to get them up and running to begin observing in late May as follows:
- A High Point 6″ f/5 Newtonian OTA on a Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro for both visual and astrophotography imaging work.
- A Celestron 130 GT Alt-Az telescope for primarily visual work.
- An Omegran Minitrack wind-up star tracking system for wide-field DSLR astrophography.
Additionally, I have a number of older telescope parts from my original builds from close to 40 years ago and they will be refurbished and new telescopes built from these for star parties and the like.
We have also acquired an older Celestron 8 inch Cassegrain scope and, back in 2019, just before the family medical issues began just as I had acquired the Highpoint Scientific gear as well as several ASI cameras for this rig.
We may build an 8 inch F6 scope down the road but we don’t want to go too much larger due to physical limitations on the astronomer who has a very bad back and is partially handicapped as a result.
The goal is to do a lot of observational astronomy via direct observation and also the use of video and camera based astronomy. We will also broadcast our sessions live on occasion and share our sessions with the public.