The Plettstone Instruments

Last year I installed a Paramount G1100 mount.  That's the purple-ish blocky thing that the scopes are connected to below. This mount is extremely accurate in pointing and can get any object in the sky onto the CCD camera chip.  That's like pointing to something the size of a pinhead on a moving target! Yes, the sky does move (or it appears to move) and for decades it has been the scourge for astronomers to figure out how to make it stop (or appear to stop) in the telescope.

After witnessing the accuracy of the mount first hand, I committed to upgrade my C11 to a C14 as soon as a good opportunity presented itself.  And that happened within a day of making myself that promise. The C14 pictured here (the black scope) had been used once and has terrific optics. The white scope on top is a 4 inch flourite refractor.  It's a killer for a guide scope.  Actually, I use it to view with.  I've not had the opportunity to use it as a guide scope.... there's no need.

The most important component of a successful observatory is your human support.  Seen above peeking from behind is Paul Plett, the Plett in PlettStone.

This is the business end of the equipment. From left to right: JMI autofocuser, Celestron Focal reducer, SBIG filter wheel, and the SBIG ST7 CCD imaging device. Dangling under the wires is my Kendrick heater control.  It popped off it's velcro mounted hiding spot (unnoticed) to get itself in this picture. There's a lot of wiring to keep straight as well.  The loose wires are for my dew heaters.  The velcro straps keep the wire bundles up so that they don't rub against the right ascension housing as I move from the eastern to western side of the sky.