My Equipment - Carl O'Beirnes

For a few years I’ve been updating my telescope equipment, this all started one night when I was out in the back garden at age 5. I looked up at the night sky and saw all those white dots and asked myself why are they there.   I was hooked. So it started, I had my mum & dad up the wall with questions on the stars.  Of course they did their best but were no astronomers.  They did a great job all the same. Then I got my first pair of binoculars. I was now looking at the Moon and thinking wow this is the hobby for me. I had them for years and used to lie on the roof extension for hours on end but i did not see much at all other then the Moon. The years rolled on, I finished school, got a job and bought my first telescope. It was a Celestron Nexstar 130 GT.   I didn’t get a clear sky for 2 months, then when I did, I had to do a two star alignment (what the hell is a two star alignment)   I was so confused.  I called the shop where I bought the scope and was soon put straight. It was then I saw the mighty Saturn for the first time and what a sight it was followed by the king of the planets Jupiter.  A few more years past and I upgraded to a Celestron Nexstar 11” GPS telescope.   The views were amazing.  At this time I also discovered the art of the web-cam. When I first set it up on the moon I could not believe the view I was getting on the laptop.  The detail was awesome, so it started my life imaging the planets.

This brings me neatly to my current set up consisting of a Celestron CGE 14” Telescope and piggy backed (on losmandy brackets) 80ED refractor , a lumenera skynyx 2.0 monochrome ccd camera with Astronomik LRGB Filters. All in a "roll off roof" back garden observatory.

Here is a picture of the observatory built with the help of David Grennan & Gary Clarke.  As you can see from the picture the way the roof rolls off.
	In this picture we get a good look at the 14” optical tube assembly
In this picture we can see the CGE mount which has to be the best mount I’ve  ever used.
	In this picture we can see the 80ED Refractor piggybacked on the main telescope with help of the losmandy  brackets which holds the 80 ED securely in place.
Here is a picture  of the  counter weights  it takes 75lbs of weight  to keep the scope balanced in declination, each weight  being 25lbs each. which is no problem for the CGE mount.
	In this picture we can see at the business end of the scope, the lumenera skynyx 2-0 monochrome ccd camera & the atik filter wheel with the LRGB filters inside.
Here is a picture of my work station were I try make the magic happen.  Everything is operated from the laptop which is great because the less I touch the scope, the less the image shakes or moves off screen.
	This is a great invention.  It is called the nexremote. It allows you to operate the hand control on screen avoiding the need to touch the actual hand control unit which is now permanently on the pier.
Here is the hand control on the pier.
Here is the last picture of the telescope & pier in the observatory

On closing if anyone is thinking on undertaking a project like this to build your own observatory do not hesitate to contact myself or Dave Grennan for any advice through this website.