Telescopes
After using  for a long time an Alstar 4,5" telescope, on a non motorised german equatorial mount, for sky watching, I decided in september 2002 to buy a 8" Meade LX200GPS f/10, with 2000mm focal distance. Later, in august 2003 I mounted an steel pier (6" pipe) with an aluminium home made equatorial wedge to have a semi-permanent site. Another meade 4" telescope, piggy back mounted, is used for autoguide. The telescope, mounted on top of the pier, and details of the equatorial wedge can be seen in the following pictures.



In March 2005 I changed the aluminium equatorial wedge for another home made wedge (Thanks Eduardo), built with 20mm steel to avoid vibrations. This one is much more robust. The wedge, mounted on top of the pier can be appreciated in the pictures.
Due to the difficulty in finding guidestars with the mount used for the guidescope, in May 2005 I decided to use a new mount. This one uses two rings with three point adjustment screws and it is mounted on top of an aluminium plate that, with two screws allows the RA adjustment (the DEC adjustment is done using the three point screws). The new setting can also be seen in the pictures.






In july 2005 I bought a new telescope, a Megrez II 80 ED, that is allowing me to take better pictures. As its focal distance is 560mm, the field of view is much wider than the field of the LX200. I use it mounted in "piggy-back" on top of the LX200 but as I was noting some flexure between both telescopes (the stars were not so round), I changed the fixing method. The new one allows an easy way of looking for the guidestar and allows also to fix both telescopes very tight. I prepared a prototype of the gadget to see if it worked and then one of my friends (thanks Marce) prepared the final system. It can be seen in the pictures.





The last changes in the equipment were made in 2006. In july I bought a 8" LX200R OTA to upgrade my LX200GPS. I was using it in that way until  December that I bought a german equetorial mount, the Losmandy Titan. In the pictures the mount with my two OTA,s can be appreciated.

Thank you again to my friend  Marce for making the adapter of the mount to the pier.




To protect the equipment I have built a roll-out  shed using a plastic garden shed of 1.50x1.00x2.05m, pretty well anchored to the pier and to the ground when closed. With the incorporated rotating wheels it runs away very easyly to a second anchor point. About security, the shed is also connected to the general alarm system of the house. Some pictures of the shed are shown below.




 
Cameras and accesories
Toucam Pro SC camera
This was the first camera I used with my LX200GPS telescope, first without modifying it to take my first pictures of  the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn and after that making the long exposure modification proposed by Steve Chambers. Information about the modification can be found here. I bought the camera in March 2003 and made the modification in june; then I started with some deep sky pictures. What a difference between these pictures and the current ones!
In the following pictures the old aspect of the camera can be seen as well as an eyepiece projector that I used with this camera. Currently the camera has suffered another modification, this time the SC3 changing the CCD and changing the box.

Prepared for the telescope
Without adaptor

Eyepiece projector

1004X JG camera
In march 2004 I completed the building of  my 1004X JG camera following the directions of Jon Grove and Steve Chambers. Information about the modification can be found here. I used this camera until may 2005, when I built my Artemis285 kit. I sold the 1004X JG to my friend Antonio, Also starting with astrophotography. In this way I could buy the new 2 inches focal reducer. The camera and the cokin filters I used to take three colour photography can be seen in the pictures.

Ready for the telescope
Inside

Whith 135mm lens

Cokin filters

Artemis285 camera
As I have already said, at the beginning of 2005 I started to think in building a kit of the new camera that was being developed, the Artemis285. I finished building the camera in may 2005. I woluld like to thank to Steve Chambers and to Jon Grove for making available to all of us this marvelous camera. Thanks also to Arthur Edwards for the magnificient case. Information about the Artemis cameras can be found here.
The pictures I take with this camera are the best ones I have taken up to now and they seem to have some quality. It is clear that the Artemis is a true CCD astrophotography camera. The camera as well as the new 2" focal reducer and a filters holder can be seen in the following pictures.

Artemis 285, filters holder and focal reducer
Mounted on the telescope

                                         

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