My instruments

 

c8

This is my main instrument : a Celestron C8 telescope, with a diameter of 203mm (8") and 2000mm of focal length.
It's a good multi-purpose instrument, with an interesting quality/price ratio.

 

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