The
Equipment
Astrophotography by Kent Biggs
Tools of the Trade
The Telescope
The telescope is a Celestron C-11. The mirror is 11 inches in diameter, focal ratio is F/10 with a focal length of 110 inches or 2800mm.
The Mount
The mount is a Losmandy G-11 mount rated at up to 60 lbs of instrument capacity. Over the years I have worked on various aspects of the mount (including order the latest new worm gears from Losmandy to improve the tracking accuracy from ±20 seconds of arc to ±5 seconds of arc. I currently use two counterweights to balance the C-11 scope, one 11 lb and one 7.5 lb.
The CCD Camera
The new CCD camera is an SBIG ST-10XME camera from www.sbig.com. It has a resolution of 2184x1472 pixels with pixel size of 6.8 um. This gives about 0.5 arc seconds resolution with the C-11 scope operating at prime focus. The camera has multiple stages of cooling to get its CCD temperature down to about 90 degrees F below ambient temperature. Accessories I received with the camera are the color wheel with Red, Green, Blue, Clear and None filters, as well as the adaptive optics module.
The Camera and accessories
The camera is an Olympus OM-1n, one of the best cameras for astrophotography due to its light weight, removable focusing screens, and totally manual operation (no batteries to drain during the 1-2 hour exposures).
The Film
I previously used Kodak Supra 400 film and hyper it for 16 hours in a mixture of hydrogen and nitrogen at a temperature of 50° C and pressure of 3 PSI. But as with every good astrophotography film, Kodak has discontinued it in favor of a "better" emulsion and I will be left once again without a good film once my current freezer stash runs out. I have also used Kodak Royal Gold 200 speed recommended by many, but am happier with the Supra for its red and blue sensitivity on long exposures.