Televue Pronto on Bogen 410 Gear Head with Bogen 3021 Tripod
The Pronto is a 70mm, F6.9 refractor (480mm focal length), suitable for widefield viewing and photography. The build is very high quality. The Bogen tripod head shown here has slow motion controls for fine tuning and tracking on any axis. However, even with the clutch releases, it is unwieldy for sweeping around the sky, which is really what this telescope is for. The Pronto has a 2" focuser, and is shown here with a Televue 2" Everbright Diagonal.
Televue Pronto on Televue Telepod with Bogen 475B Tripod
So I replaced the Bogen head shown above with a Televue Telepod mount, shown here. This Alt-Az mount can be properly balanced to allow smooth and sweeping motions while viewing widefield. I have added the Pronto balance plate to help balancing extra loads, and the eyepiece holders on both sides for storage. The Starbeam finder on the Pronto is likewise a well-designed and well-built piece of equipment.
This is my tracking mount and system. When polar aligned on the Milburn wedge, I can take extended exposures without field rotation.
Solar Setup — Televue Pronto outfitted with Coronado SolarMax 60 piggybacked on Meade LX200
This is my solar observation and photography platform. The motor-driven LX200 provides tracking throughout the day, and the Pronto is used for both visual and photographic purposes. The LX200 sits on a Milburn Wedge. The Pronto is mounted with Milburn Rings and a Milburn Dovetail Rail. The Coronado SolarMax 60 Hydrogen Alpha Filter allows SAFE viewing — don't try this without the proper equipment!! [Photo from RocheStar Fest 2003].
Early on in this hobby, I went through a bit of "eyepiece mania," and built up a collection of Televue eyepieces, mostly naglers. I also have a complete set of Meade Super Plossls that came with my LX200 at purchase.
This is the piece of equipment that allows my telescope to be mounted and aligned polarly. My scope can then track the stars without field rotation, allowing for extended photographic exposures. Milburn equipment is rock solid, and beautifully crafted.
This is actually a Bogen 3-axis head mounted on a Milburn base that fits the Milburn dovetail rails. This bracket replaced my Meade fixed bracket, which didn't allow any control in framing a photo. It was this bracket which allowed me to properly frame my Aurora and Big Dipper photo which I took in 2002.
OK, I hate this thing, and will never use it again. The idea is that a small amount of incoming light is picked off and rerouted to an eyepiece. This way, while most of the light goes to the camera, enough can come through so that you can manually guide extended exposures. I never, ever found a guiding star with this, never even reached focus in the eyepiece. Did I say that I hate this thing?
Orion MiniEQ Mount with Motor Drive and Canon D60
I bought this little mount to allow widefield photos of the sky with my Canon D60 digital camera. The mount is motorized to track the sky opposite the rotation of the Earth. I haven't had much time to play with this mount, but intend to soon.
Baader fim sandwiched between UV filters. Film is protected by glass. Filter sandwiches screw onto Canon 15x50 IS Binoculars.
Since the filters are screwed onto the objectives, there is no chance that they can accidentally pop off and blind the user. Very safe and compact.
This was my first astrophotography setup, purchased off of Astromart. The OM-1 is an ideal astrophoto camera: it's inexpensive, there are many good lenses for it, it's lightweight, it has mirror lockup, and it has a mechanical shutter (so there's no chance a battery can go dead in the middle of a long exposure thus closing the shutter). See the photos in my Film Astrophotography Gallery for results from this camera.
