My Equipment

Currently Active

Scopes

2015 Celestron NexStar 4SE - First Light January 3, 2016, first scope. Got it as a Christmas gift in 2015.

1996 Meade ETX-90RA OTA - First Light August 6, 2016. Got it at Stellafane 2016 with the fork mount. Fork mount is dead so I deforked it. Scope currently rides my Bogen 3011 for outreach or when I visit my relatives.

1967 Edmund 6" f/8 Super Space Conqueror - First Light December 3, 2016. Bought the optics in April 2016, tried to make a Dob, turns out no one in my family knows how to do basic woodworking. Bought the empty OTA and mount in July 2016, installed optics in the fall of 2016. OTA is functional but could use repainting, and I am going to replace the focuser soon.

2016 Explore Scientific FirstLight AR102 #7 - First Light January 25, 2017. It rides my Edmund Medium Duty mount. Gift from fellow Cloudynights member.

Binos

2016 Celestron Cometron 7x50s - First Light November 4, 2016 - Bought these on a whim to try out binos since they were only $30. Great binos for the price, and I now recommend them to anyone with an under-$50 budget. People say they have problems with these but I can’t find any. These binos are used by my dad more than me now.

2016 Bushnell Legacy WP 10x50s - First Light December 25, 2016 - Christmas gift, great binos. I really like the twist-up eyecups.

2016 Celestron Skymaster 15x70s - First Light December 25, 2016 - Christmas gift. A bit heavy but I can use them handheld for up to 15 minutes at a time. I saw tons of detail in M31 from my yard the first time I used them. People report tons of issues with these but I can’t find anything wrong with them (except for the tripod adapter, which is plastic junk).

Mounts & Tripods

1990s Bogen 3011 - Obtained in the 1990s by my mom, who used it with a giant video camera (which I still have).

1960s Edmund Medium Duty Equatorial on Orion Astroview tripod - Obtained January 5, 2017. Mount for the AR102. Gift from fellow Cloudynights member.

1967 Edmund Heavy Duty Equatorial - Obtained in late July 2016 with my Super Space Conqueror.

Cameras

1987 Pentax P30T - Bought it at a tag sale, trying to use it for astrophotography.

iPhone 5S - My phone. I’ve taken some pretty good lunar shots with it.

Eyepieces/Barlows

• Celestron 1.25” eyepiece kit (32mm Plossl, 17mm Plossl, 13mm Plossl, 8mm Plossl, 6mm Plossl, 2x Barlow) - Cheap, but got me started. Much better than what most people had 30 years ago.
• 25mm Celestron E-Lux - Kit eyepiece with the NexStar 4SE. My default outreach eyepiece.
• 26mm Apogee Erfle - Bought this on a whim, pretty good in my Maksutovs.
• Celestron 8-24mm Zoom - Got this as a birthday present, not recommended. Tiny FOV at 24mm and fuzzy wide FOV at 8mm..
• Orion 9mm Expanse - Given this at Stellafane. Great eyepiece.
• Vixen 20mm NPL - Given this at Stellafane. Great eyepiece.
• GSO 25mm Plossl - Christmas gift, very nice and sharp images.
• Meade 5.5mm UWA - Christmas gift, provides awesome “spacewalk” view.
• Astro Hutech 4mm Ortho - Christmas gift, I don’t use it much but it’s a good eyepiece.
• Celestron 15mm Luminos - New to the party.

Honorably Discharged

Scopes

2009 Meade NG-70SM - I got this when I was little, never figured out how to use it, gave up. Mount and tripod are damaged, finder is dead, and the included eyepieces/diagonal are junk. I tested this in the summer of 2016 and it has considerable problems with bright objects. I still haven’t gotten rid of it.