The society owns a number of instruments which it loans to the membership. This currently includes a 6" Dobsonian Newtonian reflectors, an equatorially mounted 6" Newtonian and a small catadiotropic. These provide an opportunity for beginners to assess what type of instrument best suits their requirements before laying out lots of money. Also, members are always happy to give advice or guidance on telescopes to those preparing to buy for the first time.
For security reasons the surnames of the members are not given.
Images of 'scopes belonging to the society and to individual member may be seen by clicking on the title.
NOTE: Some of the society instruments are currently available for loan to one of our members.
INDEX
6" Dobsonian
4" Tal Newtonian
60mm refractor
5" Small catadiotropic
125mm Maksutov
Mintron camera
Orion OMC + Observatories!
0.3m Newtonian reflector
Celestron G8
Orion 250mm
Orion 14" Newtonian
Home made 6"
Scotch camera mount
Vixen Super Polaris
Meade LX200 + CCDs
Solar projection
8" Orion OMC and Observatory
A picture of Doug's observatories and one of his numerous telescopes. He has several rather nice refractors, but in the top part of the image you can see a Maksutov OMC 140 made by Orion. Its a lovely bit of kit and in this instance mounted upon a Super Polaris mount. The first observatory is a simple design that can be quickly constructed by modifying a standard shed design. The second has been built to hold his 12" telescope and features double doors that let him see to the horizon.
8" Celestron
Les' "pride and joy". A Celestron G8 on a CG 5 EQ mount driven in both RA and DEC. Celestron optics are renowned for their quality and the mount is easily portable. A very nice instrument.
Improvised Scotch camera mount
A Minolta X07 camera mounted on Dave's home made Scotch camera mount. The mount is polar aligned as follows: cross hairs and a projecting screw, the tip of which marks the position of the Pole star, are fitted at the top end of the sighting tube. All tht is required is the siderial time. The tube is rotated to allow for the time via a mark on the bracket and the tripod adjusted until the Pole star is on the projecting screw.
12" Newtonian
Kev's 12" F6 Newtonian telescope. This is lovely instrument is mounted on a sturdy fork mount and gives very good results. It is computer driven and in a purpose built and secure metal run off shed. We should see some really good images when the worm/wheel upgrade is finally complete.
6" alt-az Newtonian
Alberio - The scope that Dave built. This impressively sturdy driven 6", F8, Newtonian is alt-az mounted. Home made, yet motorised in altitude and azimuth, it provides good views with the eyepiece at a very comfortable height. The casters make it very easy to move.
These are Peters telescopes. A rather nice Newtonian from Orion thats 1/8th wave or better working on a G8 Losmandy mount. Best of all its all in an observatory. To give himself something to do while the autoguider does its stuff nearby he now has a 14" Newtonian on a Dobsonian mount. He reckons he is very happy with the Orion scope and the mount is a joy.
A 14" Newtonian
This is Pete with his 14" SPX Newtonian from Orion (UK). Its mounted on an EQ6 GOTO mount from Synta. Its a very nice piece of kit. Orion make good mirrors. The colour balance may be a bit out. The tube is probably white.
A Vixen Super Polaris
My Vixen manufactured Super Polaris Newtonian. The tube assembly is an F4.4 Astrosystems 10" with optics by Hinds. The motor control is a custom built unit, but it seems to work okay. The whole lot is quite easily moved though you wouldnt want one of the counterweights dropping on your foot. Guiding accuracy for imaging is about 40 seconds or so.
A Meade 8" LX200
Simon's LX200 Schmidt Cass. It does everything but make the coffee. Its an F10 mounted on a equatorial wedge with Lynx and TC255 based CCD cameras.
Solar Photography
Left: Dave Woodwards 6" F8 Newtonian set up for projecting the eclipse of the Sun last September. Note the mylar filter used to cut down the light intensity for photography
Right: Chris Matthews captured a shot of a small spotting scope being employed to project the eclipsed sun viewed from Zimbabwe June 2001. A copy of his totality shot can be found on the SAS eclipse page.
A photograph showing the 6" F8 society Dobsonian in action. As can be seen its pretty robust. It was built by the members and is sometimes available for loan. Easy to use. It's a very nice little scope. A memory of the view of M4 through it at a South Shropshire observing session still lingers.
A robust Russian made Newtonian reflector that provides very nice crisp views. Easy to use and setup.
On a good tall tripod this provides good views of planets, the Moon and double stars. Lightweight, easy to point and intuitive. Good fun. It doesnt get easier than this.
The best possible inmtroduction into observing. Binoculars are lightweight, easy to point, provide a wide bright field of view and tolerate quite a lot of mistreatment. A great way to see the Moon, the double cluster, Andromeda galaxy and Orion nebula.
A computerisd telescope. As such things go its easy to use. But is probably not for the complete novice. The 6inch Dobsonian collects more light and is far easier to set up.
A very small telescope and not exactly state of the art - as you can see - but it is very potrable with very little needing adjustment.
This summing low light camera, seen here on an equatorially driven mount, will images large swathes of sky, displaying the result on a small TV monitor - or more recently on a suitable PC. Shows stars to 8-9th magnitude and lets you see satellites, meteors etc even in a seriously light polluted location.
This page last modified 20th October 2007. Copyright of all images resides with whoever took it.
