CELESTRON COMET CATCHER

Now we come to the big gun. Celestron introduced their first Schmidt-Newtonian telescope, the Comet Catcher in 1983. The 5.5" (140mm) diameter f/3.64 optics delivered well corrected, wide-field views. This scope has a focal length of 500mm. I got this one from the classifieds at Astromart. The optics are in good shape, but the focus mechanism was broken and imperfectly repaired by a previous owner. I may need to address this at some point. The main advantage to this scope is a really big piece of glass up front for a LOT of light in a tube that is only 19-1/2 inches long. 500mm at F/3.6 is VERY FAST.
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Shot with the Nikon 995 at full open (wide angle).
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Shot with the Nikon 995 at full zoom (4X). (Click on the image for a larger picture)

Shot with the Nikon 995 and CCC at full open (Wide Angle).

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Shot with the Nikon 995 and CCC at 50% zoom (2X).
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Shot with the Nikon 995 and CCC at full zoom (4X).
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Well the results are very good. I expect I can do better with a little more care in focussing (and perhaps a little work on the focusing mechanism). This scope has a lot of potential if a bit large to tote around. I also tried it with a 35mm SLR at prime focus and all I can say is WOW. All the focussing problems went away. This may lead to buying a Pentax DSLR. I need to get the film developed and scanned so I can put up a picture.

23 March 2004:
Here are the results from the 35mm SLR at prime focus. I am not impressed (I also find it hard to believe). The film was developed and printed at the local drugstore. The prints were scanned on a HP 4300C scanner and reduced to 2048 pixels width in Paint Shop Pro (version 7). The second picture had a 2X telextender between the camera and the scope. Comparison crops were taken from the 2X photos.

25 April 2004
I am adding a picture taken using a Pentax *ist dSLR at prime focus. The origonal ist photo was taken in RAW file format and processed via Pentax's Photo LAB. Results are better than the 35mm film camera. One problem that is evident in this phot is the extremly short depth of field. The telephone pole is in focus. The bracket on the transformer is not and that was my focus point. I have only had the ist for a couple of weeks, but for detail so far Digiscopeing beats SLR (digital or film).