Saturn Workshop June 2001
Equipment Used

Inside the observatory chamber

Keller Telescope – 16 inch f/11 Ealing classical Cassegrain telescope.
Objects Viewed: moon, Mars, globular cluster M13, Ring Nebula M-57
Key notes: Large aperture shows objects well. Equatorial mount. Massive mount is able to accommodate heavy research grade instrumentation.

Resetar Telescope – 10 inch f/10 Meade LX200 Schmitt Cassigran Telescope (SCT)
Objects Viewed: Globular cluster M13, Ring Nebula M57, open cluster M29, Dumbbell Nebula M27 and a tour of the lunar landscape with a PC23C video camera displayed on an old Apple computer 15 inch monitor (monitor donated by Canton City Schools).
Key notes: Decent aperture and focal ratio for a good general purpose telescope to be used on deep space objects and planetary observing. GOTO computer control altazmuth mount. Sturdy mount can accommodate imaging system. Computer tracking keeps image in the field of view.
Images: lunar features  Mare Vaporum, Ptolemaeus, Walter, Alpine Valley, Hadley Rille (Apollo 15 landing site).

10 inch Dobsonian – 10 inch f/4.5 Newtonian reflector.
Objects Viewed: At students discretion.
Key notes: Ease of use and operation. Very reliable since there are no electronics to break down. Decent aperture. Not very usefull for imaging. Most scope for the money.

Binoculars –  11x80
Objects Viewed: At students discretion.
Key notes: Easy to use. Wide field of view. Binoculars of this size require a tripod.

Outside the observatory chamber on the sundial

4 inch Refractor - Takahashi 4 inch f/8 refractor on a German Equatorial Mount.
Objects Viewed: Moon, Mars, and double stars Alberio, Ras Algethi and the double-double (Epsilon Lyrae).
Key notes: Premium optics with color correction (NO chromatic aberration). Excellent for viewing details on lunar, planetary and double stars. Sturdy equatorial mount with tracking motor keeps objects in the field of view and stable enough to do imaging. Digital Setting Circles display celestial coordinates.

3 inch Refractor - Celestron 80mm f/5 refractor on a German Equatorial Mount.
Objects Viewed: Moon
Key notes: Entry level optics and short focal ratio results in lots of chromatic abboration (color fringing on bright objects). The 40mm aperture mask helps reduce color fringing by increasing the focal ratio to f/10 and using the center of the lens. Wide field of view – 3 degrees at 16x. Equatorial mount with manual slow motion controls. Standard tripod is shaky at high powers which makes imaging difficult.
Images: Moon Taken with PC23C camera and additional informaiton on camera and accessories.

Astroscan – 4 inch f/4.2 reflector. Newtonian reflector.
Objects Viewed: At students discretion.
Key notes: Short focal length results in a wide field of view (3 degrees at 16x). Objects appear brighter than in the 80mm refractor. Friction altazmuth mount is easy to use. Friction mount and tripod are shaky at high powers which makes imaging and tracking difficult.

7 inch MAK - 7 inch f/15 Meade LX200  Maksutov Cassegrain Telescope.
Objects Viewed: Moon, Mars, Ring Nebula M-57, and a globular cluster M-3, were imaged and displayed with a SBIG STV CCD camera.
Key notes: Longer focal ratio is excellent for viewing planetary, lunar and double star details. Decent aperture allows for viewing of faint deep space objects. GOTO computer control altazimuth mount. Sturdy mount can accommodate imaging system. Computer tracking keeps image in the field of view.
Images: Moon, Mars, Ring Nebula M-57, globular cluster M-3

6 inch Newtonian Reflector - 6 inch f/8 Newtonian reflector on a German Equatorial Mount.
Objects Viewed: Moon, Mars and at students discretion.
Key notes:  The 6 inch f/8 newtonian reflector has been the workhorse of amature astronomers for decades. All Messier objects, many NGC objects and planets show detail well. This is arguably the best overall optical design for the money. (Note that the optical  tube can be mounted on an equatorian mount with or without tracking motors or a Dobsonian mount.) This scope had manual movement, no clock drive equatorial mount that required movement in one axis only when polar aligned.

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Last updated November 11, 2001 by Bill Castro