The Observatory

My observatory is located in historic and beautiful Chester County, Pennsylvania. The local terrain coupled with the occasional southerly breezes (mostly around the equinoxes) off the Atlantic can often provide good seeing.

The observatory shortly after it was commissioned in 2011, along with a cat named Toby that never saw a door he didn’t make me open for him. The roof slides onto the rails (to the left) to open, using a small motor mounted inside.

The main instrument for planetary imaging is a Celestron C14 XLT with a Starlight Feathertouch remote focuser on a Celestron CGE Pro mount. The main cameras for planetary imaging are an ASI290m and ASI174m with Astrodon and Astronomik T2c filters. Additional magnification comes from a Baader FFC system — an essential for imaging UV targets such as Venus, as fluorite glass absorbs much less UV light than BK4 and other optical-grade glass.

Celestron C14 on a CGE Pro mount

For deep sky astrophotography, I use a Takahashi FSQ106 EDX4 and an aging SBIG 11000m Cooled CCD camera (pre-CMOS days running on USB1 –it produced some great images but is due for replacement).

Interior view of the observatory and Takahashi refractor. Note the motor on the wall that opens and closes the roof.