RESOURCES: Club Telescopes
Westminster Astronomical Society
has several Club telescopes at its members disposal!
The following telescopes are available to borrow:
Here is a description of the telescopes owned by the club followed by information about how they may be obtained for use by club members.
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Celestron 8” Star Hopper— This 8-inch Dobsonian was purchased by the club several years ago. It has excellent optics and is fairly easy to use – just point and look. It is equipped with a 1x Telrad finder and eyepieces.
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Criterion Deluxe Dynascope 6— Criterion was a prolific provider of relatively inexpensive Newtonian reflectors during the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s. This Deluxe 6” f/8 Newtonian has all the bells and whistles including a camera mount and guide scope refractor. It has a set of original eyepieces mounted in a turret and your choice of a wooden tripod or cast iron “permanent” pier. The polar clock drive runs on regular household AC current.
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Criterion Standard Dynascope 6— Although the budget scope of the Dynascope series these telescopes were immensely popular in the early decades of the latter half of the 20th century. The 6” f/8 Newtonian telescope has a hollow steel pier on aluminum legs and a 110V AC clock drive.
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Meade “Goto” DS-114— This is a computer-enabled 4.5-inch Newtonian with “Goto” capability. It is the newest member of the collection and was donated to us in December. Anyone interested in dabbling in computer-enabled telescopes would definitely find this telescope to be quite a learning experience. Telescope has three eyepieces (two are useless), a small finder, and a hand-held keypad. Powered by 10 (yes, 10!) AA batteries or a 12V power supply (not provided).
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Orion 4” Refractor— Good quality refractor was donated by WASI member George Sauter. (This telescope does not currently have a mounting.)
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Edmund 4” Newtonian— This classic Edmund Scientific 4” Newtonian on a German Equatorial mounting was donated by a guest at one of our meetings years ago. It gives amazingly crisp images and does not have a clock drive.
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20x100mm Apogee Binoculars— WASI members Dave Gede and Dave Oler donated these large binoculars with a 100mm aperture. In addition, Dave Oler also donated a mounting that was hand built by another WASI member, Paul Henze.
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Meade Electronic Eyepiece— This isn’t a telescope. Rather it is a small eyepiece-sized video camera that can be slipped into a telescope’s standard sized 1.25” or 0.95” eyepiece holder. It includes a short RCA cable that the observer connects to a television monitor (not provided). A 9 volt battery is required. This is a good item for persons interested in dabbling in video astronomy.
The following two telescopes are not available for loan because they are too cumbersome or are high value instruments. However, you will see them from time to time at various club events and eventually at the WASI-built public observatory at the Bear Branch Nature Center (BBNC).
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24.6” Dobsonian— The primary mirror was made by the same company that made the primary mirror for the Hubble Space Telescope – Perkin Elmer. The story goes that the optics were used by NASA for laser ranging experiments in which a laser beam transmitted from earth was bounced off of reflectors erected on the moon by the Apollo astronauts. By timing the laser beam round trip scientists were able to determine the distance to the moon with centimeter accuracy.
WASI members Ron Smith and Paul Henze constructed a Dobsonian mounting and converted the 24.6” Cassegrain optics into a Newtonian.
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"Tom-Tom" 5-inch Refractor— WASI members Tom Renn and Tom Engwall donated a premium 5” f/8 Astro-Physics brand apochromatic refractor and a Losmandy brand G-11 German Equatorian mounting, respectively, for this fine instrument. Plans are for it to be housed in the upcoming observatory where its duties will include astrophotography and high resolution solar observing.
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