Equipment

Current Equipment

My quest for obtaining an Astro-Physics Refractor was finally achieved on March 15th 2001. I responded to a classified ad on AstroMart for a set of Zeiss ABBE Ortho eyepieces. The party responded with the usual, "You missed them by 15 minutes." That's OK as he proceeded to tell me that he had some Astro-Physics equipment he wanted to sell and that got me more interested than if I were able to purchase the Zeiss eyepieces.

He told me that he had several Astro-Physics telescopes and mounts and that he was even thinking about selling his 180mm f/7! The 180 f/7 is an extremely rare and highly desirable telescope. Only 15 180 f/7's were ever manufactured and this has caused the price to jump into the realm of dreamland for me. Did I want it? SURE! The asking price was more than I could ever fathom paying at this stage in my life so I inquired about the 155mm f7. The price was right and I even got a good deal on the 1200 QMD mount seen in the photo below. I purchased it as a package and it will soon be permanently mounted in a new observatory that Trent and I are breaking ground on next week.

Here's the sweet part: Trent bought the 180 f/7! :-)

He also purchased a 1200 GTO from the selling party and we now have a 6" (155) and a 7" (180) to assault the night sky with.

The 400 GTO in the pictures below the new setup, is my very first piece of Astro-Physics equipment. I purchased it new from AP in July 2000. After getting the TMB 105/650 I found that when I load the 400 down with all my photographic equipment, it was very hard to keep the mount balanced accurately. The 400 is a great mount and is extremely portable and easy to setup. My photographic pursuits however, require a mount with higher capacity so It was sold and will be leaving home next week (03/26/2001).

I have "traded up" to an Astro-Physics 900 GTO. Pictures will be posted once it gets here.