I have owned over 470 telescopes. The full list is here.

Currently I observe with two large Dobsonians and a Celestron C11 Schmidt-Cassegrain, with my 6" f/4.3 for wide-field views. Most of my other telescopes are used for outreach events or quick lunar/planetary views at home.

Reflectors

14.7" f/2.9 Dob built by me

Coulter Odyssey 1 13.1" f/4.5 built circa 1981

One of the first complete Coulter Odyssey telescopes, I was told it was made for the president of an astronomy club in Phoenix. Upgraded with a 2" focuser and a smoother, lighter weight ground board. Very sharp views, though the 90-degree eyepiece angle is kind of annoying. Unlike the later red tube versions you have to remove the primary mirror for transport, which allows me to keep the scope out in the garage and the mirror indoors and air-conditioned. This is still a lot quicker to set up than a truss tube scope like my 14.7".

John Dobson 8" f/6 built circa 1985

Yes, this scope was built by the John Dobson himself. I have been told by several people they saw him using it around 1985 in San Francisco. It is extremely sharp optically. It was given to me at Stellafane 2021 and I have used it extensively since.

I added numerous upgrades such as a new ground board, helical 2" focuser, and a better mirror cell. Secondary mirror still is attached to a spider made out of roofing shingles.

6" f/4.3 Newtonian built by me

Schmidt-Cassegrains (SCT)

Celestron C11 built circa 1978

My second orange C11 (the first was mounted on a CGEM). Like the last one I’ve seen the Encke gap with it thanks to the razor-sharp optics. The tube detaches from the forks for easy setup/packing in just a few minutes.

Criterion Dynamax 6 built circa 1978

One of the few Criterion Dynamaxes that is good optically. Made in Connecticut, my home state. The 6" units have a better reputation, and all of the other ones I’ve heard about are also pretty good - compare that to the single decent DX8 and the four others I’ve used that were complete trash. The fork mount on this unit is blue, but someone painted them and the wedge black. It’s not as quite as sharp as my Intes MK63 but a lot lighter and quicker to acclimate to ambient temperatures on account of its Schmidt-Cassegrain design and Bakelite tube.

Maksutov-Cassegrains (MCT)

Intes MK63 built 1992

One of the earliest Maksutovs to be imported from Russia shortly after the fall of the USSR, the Intes MK63 is the same telescope as the MK65 but with a fork mount and a 60mm f/25 Mak guide scope which I sold to a friend. I printed some hardware to fit the mount on a surveyor tripod, since the wooden one it came with was fragile and far from steady. Very good views, although there is some glare on account of a lack of secondary baffling. This scope has no internal focuser or rear-attached unit; focusing is accomplished with a helical threaded holder on the diagonal. Rather fast for a Maksutov at a focal ratio of f/10.

Meade ETX-90RA built 1996

I have had a lot of ETXes; my first, like this one, was an RA unit with a non-working clock drive (thankfully this one lacks the fungus on the corrector which my first had). It has flown across the US with me and I can use it on both its #881 tabletop legs or the #884 heavy duty tripod.

SarBlue Mak70 2022

I have 2 of these presently, the second was purchased for a video review. Very good lunar, planetary, and double star instruments.

Refractors

Meade #312 (80mm f/11) built late 1970s

I found this telescope on Craigslist. It is one of the best achromats I have used; the tube and mount were both made by Mizar in Japan. The mount is a little cumbersome to take apart so I mostly use it in my backyard. The Orion SkyView Deluxe (made by GSO) happens to be a near-exact copy of the Mizar mount so I took a polar scope and clock drive off one and put it on the 312.

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