The newest addition to my optical tube lineup is a 10" Ritchey-Chretien from RC Optical Systems in Flagstaff, Arizona. The optical tube is an outstanding long focal length instrument. You will see a lot more images from this optical tube on this site in the near future.
Many of the images on this site were taken using Takahashi Newtonian style optical tubes. The optical tube pictured directly below is a Takahashi MT-200 and is shown in the configuration I use for CCD imaging. The MT-200 has an 8" primary mirror and a native focal length of 1200 mm with a f-ratio of 6.0. The mount is an Astro-Physics 1200 GTO.
Pictured below is the Takahashi MT-160 in CCD imaging configuration. The MT-160 has a 6.25" primary mirror and its native focal length is 1000 mm at f/6.25.
I also use a Takahashi Epsilon 160 f/3.3 astrograph for wide field CCD imaging with an SBIG ST-2000XM and for film photography with a 35 mm camera. The Epsilon is sometimes guided through a separate Borg 76 mm guide scope using a SBIG ST-237A.
The picture below shows the Epsilon 160 attached to the mount by way of a custom dovetail plate and weight system fabricated for me by Jerry Stephenson. The custom plate enables me to balance the front-heavy Epsilon and CCD camera combination. E-mail me if you are interested in custom machining and milling work and I will send you Jerry's e-mail address. He does beautiful work at a very reasonable rate.
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Jacobsen.
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