Ray Gralak's Astronomy Equipment

10" RC Optical Instruments Ritchey-Chretien. I received this nice instrument in April 2000. I use it mainly for CCD-imaging with my SBIG Class 1 ST-8E CCD camera, AO-7 adaptive optics component, and CFW-8 color wheel. In the picture below it is mounted on my AstroPhysics 1200 GTO mount.

   Click on the image for a full size picture.

AstroPhysics 155EDFS refractor Refractor. I acquired this used in September 2000. It is an exquisite medium aperture refractor. Superb for planetary and lunar viewing. Also excellent for CCD imaging! Look for the solar image and Veil shot on my imaging page. See Picture below...

AstroPhysics Traveler 105mm Refractor. As with my 155EDFS I acquired this scope used (just a few weeks after the 155 EDFS -and also as with my 155 I had to pay a premium over list to get it!) I am using it for wide field imaging with my ST8E. Here is a picture of the Traveler riding piggy pack on the 155EDFS:

        Click either image for a full size picture.

Takahashi FS-128 Refractor. I use this instrument mainly for astro-imaging with my SBIG Class 1 ST-8E CCD camera and CFW-8 color wheel, which are also mounted on the telescope in the image below. I have taken numerous images with this instrument which can be seen here .

        Click on either image for a full size picture. The FS-128 does not really have wheels in the second picture! :-)

Astro-Physics 1200 GTO Mount. I received my AstroPhysics 1200 GTO mount in early October (1999). It is simply phenomenal! It and the portable pier are well worth the money I spent on them. The "goto" feature has been extremely useful for locating objects for imaging.

I have run underground cables from my house to where I set up my mount for imaging. Specifically, I ran two 100 foot lengths of Belden 8138 cable (one for the ST8E, the other for two serial ports and my JMI DRO focuser). I also ran an extra telephone line, Cat 5e, and a video cable to my "Astro Shed" which is not shown. The Astro Shed houses another PC, a 300 Mhz AMD K6. It is setup to control the AP1200 and ST8E should I want to work outdoors. Indoors I use my 700 Mhz Dell Inspiron 5000 notebook with 192MB of ram and 18GB hard drive running Windows 2000. I also use this notebook computer when I image in the field.

Once I acquire my images I usually process my images on my main PC, a dual 900 MHz PIII machine with 1 Gigabyte of RAM and 115 GB of hard disk space running Windows 2000. I use MaximDL/CCD 2.09, Photoshop 6.0, and MIRA AP 6.07.03 for image registration and processing. I've also been using Registar from Auriga Imaging for a lot of the mosaics I've put together.

18" F/4.5 Truss Tube Dobsonian. I made this scope from the AstroSystems design in the summer of 1995. Actually, my wife's grandfather, Joe McCord, a master pattern maker guided me through this project. Without his help and equipment I would not been able to produce this scope. It has served me without fail for the last 5 years.

Up until the summer of 1999 this scope used a 17.5" Pyrex mirror refigured by Galaxy Optics. I have since bought another mirror, an 18" by Galaxy Optics. Unfortunately the cool down time is now longer and seeing doesn't ever seem to be good enough to show off the supposedly better figure of the 18. So far I have not seen a significant difference between the two mirrors. Well, 1/2 inch is 1/2 inch so I kept the 18" mirror and sold the 17.5".

The scope uses a 98% reflective 3.1" secondary. It also has a Dob-Driver II, Sky Commander DSC, and a motorized JMI focuser. It is quite nice to use.

Click on any of the thumbnails for a much higher resolution image:

Astronomy equipment I no longer own (updated April 15, 2000)