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My father got me started in amateur astronomy when I was just a kid. As most folks do, Dad went through several scopes and finally settled on a Celestron 5" Schmidt Cassegrain. It is a reflector type telescope with a short body and a 5" primary mirror. In a wonderful gesture he handed the scope down to me so that I could share the heavens with his grandchildren. Here is an image of a new C-5: 
My C-5 is vintage 1974 and has the classic Celestron orange body. I have upgraded the scope by adding a 1.25" visual back, 1.25" star diagonal, and a set of 1.25" plossl eyepieces. These enhance eye relief considerably over the .96" set that originally came with the scope. I have also added a very sturdy equatorial wedge-tripod combination for steadier seeing and easier access to the scope. This scope delivers some incredible resolution. On nights of good "seeing", I can see the dim, very close companion of Rigel in Orion. That is pretty close to the limit for this scope. 
The Schmidt-Cassegrain design is very popular in astronomy in that it delivers excellent quality in a compact package. A 5" reflector of the same size is almost 6ft. long!!! Schmidt's are used in everything from amateur astronomy to satellite based photography - spy satellites. I like the design and the scope because it is light, small and easily transportable. When I head out to the backyard, I have some old favorites which I like to show people. The Orion nebula at low power is an awe-inspiring site to most. Saturn and Jupiter yield ooohhhhs and aaahhhs and are just fun to see. When I am out alone, I take my Universal Workshop Astronomical Calendar and a copy of Sky and Telescope's guide to the evening sky for that month. These sources give me plenty of easy to tough targets to try and find. I have included some links to great web sites that will give you plenty of information. The Heaven's-Above site is great for an up to the minute sky map as well as predicting satellite fly-overs such as the International Space Station. I have also tried my hand at a little astro-photography using the scope and an olympus OM-1, fully manual SLR camera ("again, thanks to Dad...") 
The above is the picture of the sun taken at low power through the C-5 with the camera mounted on the back. NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY, THROUGH A FINDER OR CERTAINLY THROUGH AN UNSHIELDED SCOPE!!! I use an aluminum film solar filter. To align the scope, I place a translucent shield over the finder and aim the scope by looking at the light pattern from the finder on the ground behind the scope. This usually gets me close enough to guide the scope at low power to center the field. 
For the Leonids, I mounted the camera on the body of the scope for a steady platform, aimed the camera in the general direction of the Leo constallation, and held the shutter open for 25 seconds at a time. Although not a very clear picture, the above shows 4 meteors streaking through the frame. The general idea is just to lay back on a lawn chair and look-up. Believe me, the Leonids are a blast to watch!!! 
This was an infinitely cool occasion to watch. Saturn in itself is a fun object and so is the moon. To photograph both is somewhat difficult in that the moon is so much brighter than Saturn. My theory was to set exposure settings as if I was shooting Saturn directly. That is why the moon is awash and over-exposed. Someday I'll figure out Adobe photoshop enough to combine pictures for better resolution. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the short astronomical walk!!! |