The Telescopes

18" Maxx

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This is the Maxx telescope with the shroud covering the poles. It's a 18" f/4.89 Dob that is likely the largest telescope that I will ever make. It had first Light in February 2010. Maxx now has wheelbarrow handles and due to its size and weight I use it mostly in the back yard.

Maxx Scope

16" Mini Maxx

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This is the little brother of the Maxx. The Mini Maxx telescope is a 16" f/4.66 Dob that is a little smaller and a lot lighter than the 18". The mirror is only 1" thick and the Baltic Birch plywood is mostly 1/2" thick with the trunnions being 3/4" thick. This is my primary star party telescope. The Mini Maxx had First Light on 1/7/2019.

Mini Maxx Scope

12.5" Griffin

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This is a 12.5" f/5.25 named 'Griffin'. it saw first light on February 6th, 2005 - only 3 days before a star party it was attending (ready or not). Whew! I took what I learned building on the 8" and made it bigger This is my primary public observing scope and as of 2020 more than 4000 (some nights it's difficult to keep track) people have looked through this telescope.

Griffin Telescope

11" C11

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This is the Celestron 11" f/10 on a Losmandy G11 mount. I usually only set it up for multi-day star parties. I can't say enough good things about this scope and the mount. It's also the only telescope and mount combo that I bought (I also bought 3" and 4" refractors further down that use on the G11 mount).

CG11

8" Fritz

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I made the primary mirror, spider and the scope itself and I'm pretty happy with my first ATM attempt. It's a great wide-field scope with decent light gathering in a fairly short tube form. Set-up is a snap since there's only two pieces and this has become my one-night-stand scope of choice and great for Halloween night. I enjoyed the optics making part of this enough that it was followed up with a 12.5", 18" and 16"

Fritz Telescope

4" Esprit 100ED

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The Esprit 100ED f/5.5 refractor. This is an amazing astrophotography telescope. Most of my astro photos have been re-shot using this telescope and the quality difference is obvious.

This is set up on the Losmandy G11 mount. I have shot quite a few astro photos from the backyard with this setup.

Esprit 100 on the G11 mount

3.1" Megrez 80SD

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This is the Megrez 80SD (3.1") f/6 refractor on the G11 mount. There's also an alt/az home-made mount. I bought the Megrez initially for a trip to New Mexico, but it has been great for lunar and solar viewing. The Messier objects views were far better than I expected with this little scope. The tube is built like a tank also.

Megrez 80 set up for astrophotography

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