CitMO Gear:
A recent scope upgrade prompted me to add an equipment page.
CitMO's primary scope is an 8" Astro-Tech Ritchey-Chretien astrograph. This telescope replaces the OTA from an 8" Meade LX90 SCT that I used up until spring of 2011. The current scope is an f/8 which gives me a good field of view for galaxies, globular clusters and planetary nebulae. I'm still working on a suitable wide-field scope for the observatory.
Primary CitMO Astrograph
Astrograph Optics
Also visible in the main scope picture is the mount I'm using. It's an Orion Atlas EQ-G which I'm controlling with a PC in the observatory using EQMOD (see the links page for a link to the EQMOD home page). This has been a pretty reliable set up. I'm using a wireless gamepad to manually slew the scope which is very convenient.
The main imager is a QSI583ws. It's an 8MP dedicated monochrome imager with fantastic noise characteristics and regulated cooling. I find -10 degrees C to be a good set point year round in this climate. It's got an integrated filter wheel loaded for LRGB imaging using 1.25" Astronomic type IIc filters. There's a tiny bit of vignetting, it's hard to see on a regular exposure and easily removed with flats. I've been pretty happy with it, though at any binning mode, the read-out latches can saturate causing some local blooming around bright objects. Not a huge hassle, but it is an extra processing step.
CitMO Imager
I guide with a seperate guide scope mounted on a Vixen style rail on the top of the scope (visible in the picture). I hacked down the 8x50 finder scope that came with the Meade LX90 and attached an inexpensive rotary focuser. I also drilled and tapped a hole for a focus lock screw, since the focuser didn't come with one. The guider camera is a Meade DSI II pro, that was my primary imager way back in the day.
I use Craig Stark's Nebulosity 2 for image capture, registering, stacking and some image processing, with the remainder of my processing and color combine done in Photoshop CS4. I use PHD for guiding. That, by the way, is the best bang for your buck combination for imaging and guiding. Nebulosity 2 was only $60 when I purchased it and the PHD is free. They are robust, have terrific support and just do the job, quietly and inexpensively. Can't ask for more than that.