Roger W. Tuthill Polar Alignment Scope

The TPAS is now part of the ritual of setting up the scope for a nights observing or imaging. Its takes all of 5 mins to get an alignment that is more than adequate for visual use and it has cut down on the time I spend drift aligning dramatically. I absolutely adore the thing. BTW if you have one of these check out Ray Porter's software for calculating the settings for your TPAS.

Bob's Nobs for Meade 8" f/10

This is a product I can't say enough good things about. The biggest compliment I think I can pay to Bob's Nobs is that once I had them installed I have rarely remembered that they're even there. Reaching around to the front of your scope to give the collimation a final little tweak with your hand while looking through the eyepiece is the most natural thing in the world. Poking at a corrector plate in the dark with a sharp allen wrench aiming for 'em teeny tiny screws is not. Hell I'd put Bob's Nob's on a refractor! ;o) Support Bob! Buy his nobs!!

Telrad Zero Power Finder

My dad brounght me back a Telrad from a business trip to Toronto about 2 weeks after getting my Celestron 9x50 finder. Thanks to this thing the Celestron 9x50 now spends most nights capped. I can get jupiter in the FOV of my 12.5mm Ortho. using the Telrad alone and star hopping is great with this thing. Another plus is how little energy this thing eats. I forget about 8 times in 10 to switch this thing off (sometimes for days) and I have yet to change the batteries on it. Wish my guiding ep was this kind!

Celestron 9x50 Finder

I always found the stock Meade 6x30 finder rather claustrophobic but this thing was a revelation. The FOV is astounding compared to the dinky 6x30 and the extra magnification allows you to see many more stars.

JMI 2" to 1.25" Adapter

If I'm not mistaken this thing costs about $12 from JMI but you can get one of these from almost any supplier. This allows me to use my Cassigrain Easy Guider visualy. (Check out the Lumicon CEG in the Astrophotography section on this page.)

Prismatic 10x50 Binoculars

My pair of re-he-he-eely cheapo binos. I wanted a pair of binos about the same power of my finder to help me star hop my way to those faint fuzzies. The glass in these surprised me as it is much better than what I was expecting. The only problem they have is keeping them in focus as it takes very little pressure on the oculars to shift focus. Maybe ont day I'll re-grease these with somthing thicker...

ProtoStar Flocked Paper

I'd put up an image but you wouldn't be able to see it! Bada-bing, bada-bang. Seriouly this isn't a hard modification to do and the results are surprising. The inside of my scope now looks like there is a mirror floating in the darkness where as before you could see the reflections off of the inside of the tube. Visually I noticed there are a much fiewer reflection when looking at bright objects like Venus, Jupiter and the Moon. Click here to visit ProtoStar's web page.