My instruments

It is fitted on a Vixen GP mounting, with a wood tripod.

Motorization is realized with a Vixen Skysensor 2000PC, which is a GoTo system. This pointing computer is very precise if you horizontaly level the mounting and make a careful polar alignment -despite the Vixen claim. This is quite easy, as the mounting is fitted with an incorporated polar finder.
This computer knows more than 13000 objects, including 110 lunar spots. It is able to follow comets or artificial satellites, if you enter the coordinates of the object.

I've changed the original finder by a Rigel Quickfinder (same principle as a Telrad, but lighter and less bulky). Its only use is for the initial tuning of the Skysensor with reference stars, then it's the computer who does the job. And for this first alignment, I find this finder easier to use than a standard optical one.

I also use an Astronomix 80x500 refractor, quite useful to travel.
As all these small refractor, it gives a bit of chromatic abberation with the shiny objects, like the planets. But it is specially interesting for wide fields of the deep sky.

My eyepieces are :

• a widefield Pentax XL 40mm (1°7' of true FOV) : outstanding sharpness, contrast and brightness, but a bit of field curvature on the edges with the C8.
• a 19 mm super wide angle Siebert Optics (70° of apparent FOV, ie 42' of true FOV) : very sharp until the edge of the field, a bit less bright than the Pentax, but much less expensive too. Exceptional quality/price ratio.
• a 10mm Tele-Vue Radian. Great field of view (60° of apparent FOV), great eye relief of 20mm. Perfect for planetary usage, very sharp.
• Vixen Lanthanum in 5 mm. This eyepiece has a great eye relief of 20mm, what makes it of pleISOnt use. However, the image is not as bright as you could expect.

A useful trick for those who observe with a laptop running under Windows XP : a night theme to download.