Photos to the left and immediately below Celestron C-14 OTA mounted on a Losmandy HGM Titan. A 2" Van Slyke Hexagonal Turret with integrated filter slot adapter is loaded out with 6 Televue Nagler eyepieces including a 31 Nagler (the hand-grenade!). I am using this as a portable assembly. While the total weight of the rig runs approx 240 pounds, everything breaks down into manageable components; the heaviest is the Optical Tube Assembly itself at 45 pounds. The Van Slyke Turret, with eypieces adds 12 pounds and approximately 9 inches back focus (easily compensated for by the C-14 primary focuser). With the Astro-Zap rigid Dew Shield in place, and the OTA dovetail slid far forward in the saddle, tube counterweight is not required to offset the addition of the turret.

Additional non-stock items include an after-market extended counterweight bar, AP illuminated 8x50 finder plus Televue Starbeam and Robin Cassady 23 pound stainless steel counterweights. The mount seems to handle the OTA well however future plans include migration to the Paramount ME to accomidate this OTA as well as a larger 18" Classical Cassegrain currently under development by Astrophotographer Richard Crisp.

Complete Setup (Dillingham Airfield, Oahu Hawaii)

 
Click on any image for a larger picture

Isaac (my son) and some of his neighborhood friends (Colleen, Thomas, Kyle and Travis)

Photo series show C-14 outfitted with a Solar Spectrum .3 ASO Hydrogen Alpha (HA) filter produced by Mark Wagner. Solar Spectrum produces a superb product that performs equal to or better then other filter technologies costing double the price. The filter is interfaced to the OTA via a Van Slyke SLIDER 2 Flip Mirror system to permit toggling between either live video output or direct visual observation via eyepiece. The 115mm Energy Rejection Filter located on the front of the C-14, incorporates a Baader Cool ERF and the stopped down aperature generates the requisite f/30 focal length required for the Solar Spectrum filter to perform effectively.

This was a trial run of the configuration prior to the IFA event to demonstrate feasibility of live video to an LCD. Camera being utilized is the SAC Minitron 640x480 Color Cam. Ultimately insertion of a 3.3 Focal Reducer was determined nessessary to ensure adequate Solar Disc presentation on the LCD display (running at its native 1280 x 1024 resolution, this yielded approximately 40 percent of the solar disk being viewable on the monitor).

Live feed of Sun's surface!

 

Solar Spectrum .3 Angstrom Filter and SAC Minitron Camera

Ken Archer (owner of IRONWOOD OBSERVATORY on Oahu's Northshore) and me at our joint setup during the IFA Open House.

 

The remainder of the Ironwood Observatory crew (top: Frank Pino , bottom: Tasha and Gale)