SkyShed POD Personal Observatory: By Guest Host, James Dire
Hi All,
Had a productive day at the observatory yesterday. Got the Sky Shed POD anchored to the concrete and installed all of the equipment. After dark, did the polar alignment and a mount model. All is ready to start imaging!
The anchor bolt in the photo goes 3 inches into the concrete. The telescope is an 8-inch Ritchey-Chretien. I’m using an 0.8x Focal Reducer/Field Flattner with the CCD camera which yields an f/6.4 system with a 1300mm focal length.
The camera is an SBIG ST-2000XCM. Controlling everything with The SkyX Pro and imaging with MaximDL.
I’ll probably swap cameras occasional with an SBOIG STF-8300c and swap telescopes with my 5.2-inch f/7 refractor.
Jim