::Satourne::

Drawing of an astronomer behind a telescope

Hardware And Software

GSO 150mm/750mm Newtonian Reflector

I particularly liked the robust look of the eyepiece holder. Experience tells me that astronomy equipment is better when it looks solid!

Eyepiece holder of the GSO telescope

I purchased this telescope for the following reasons:

Secondary mirror of the GSO telescope

I still have to collimate the telescope but access to the various collimation screws seems pretty easy. It arrived not very well collimated

I was a bit worried about collimation because I am not the DIY kind of person. But I bought a collimation cap and I found the procedure rather well explained at this website.

I have just received this telescope and will write my opinion soon about it.

Back of the primary mirror of the GSO telescope

Orion ED80 APO Refractor

This has been the first time I have a refractor. Beforehand I had an 8" Meade LX200 and was not very happy with it (too many mechanical failures and poor overall quality). What I need is equipment that simply works, quickly and efficiently, and that is the case with the Orion APO.

The first time I had a look through the Orion I was very positively impressed and still am. Compared to my former 200mm Meade I can say viewing is more pleasant, images are more stable, focusing is brilliant and performance surprising. Now, because I intend to do exposures longer than 2 minutes, I need a guiding telescope. The Vixen GP-DX mount like most mounts is not accurate enough to track stars for more than about 2 minutes, even if the mount is carefully aligned. Because I just bought the GSO Newton scope above, I use my Orion as a guiding scope or as a scope to shoot planets with my webcam.

Vixen GP-DX Mount and SkySensor 2000 PC System

My mount is installed on a concrete pillar so that I do not have to use the supplied Vixen tripod. This mount is the only mount I have ever had so I cannot compare it to other mounts on the market. But I find it rather hard to use and understand. The way you have to align it is really difficult to understand, well for me at least! The documentation is really not well written out and too short.

I was not very impressed by the SkySensor. I had several problems with the internal battery and ROM and had to send it back to Vixen. I had to wait for about 2 months to have it back! It is not intuitive to use it and here again the user manual is not well written out. But overall, this system works as intended. It is just that for the price I paid to buy it I would have expected something better.

Canon 300D DSLR and Remote Control Interfaces

Here, I must say that I am very satisfied of this equipment and recommend it, well the newer models of course. I've never had any problems with it and the image quality is good. I will buy Canon again next time I change cameras.

To be able to control my camera remotely and use it for exposures above 30 seconds, I bought a Shoestring DSUSB Interface. I am very satisfied with it: installation is easy and it simply works. But I also bought a French remote control interface called QuickRemote which is quite good also and that I can use with the software called Audela that generally control my obseving sessions.