This is the Maxx telescope with the shroud covering the poles. It's a 18" f/4.89 Dob that is likely the largest telescope that I will ever make. It had first Light in February 2010. Maxx now has wheelbarrow handles and due to its size and weight I use it mostly in the back yard.
I also have some information if you are interested in building you own telescope.
This is the little brother of the Maxx. The Mini Maxx telescope is a 16" f/4.66 Dob that is a little smaller and a lot lighter than the 18". The mirror is only 1" thick and the Baltic Birch plywood is mostly 1/2" thick with the trunnions being 3/4" thick. This is my primary star party telescope. The Mini Maxx had First Light on 1/7/2019.
This is a 12.5" f/5.25 named 'Griffin'. it saw first light on February 6th, 2005 - only 3 days before a star party it was attending (ready or not). Whew! I took what I learned building on the 8" and made it bigger This is my primary public observing scope and as of 2020 more than 4000 (some nights it's difficult to keep track) people have looked through this telescope.
This is the Celestron 11" f/10 on a Losmandy G11 mount. I usually only set it up for multi-day star parties. I can't say enough good things about this scope and the mount. It's also the only telescope and mount combo that I bought (I also bought 3" and 4" refractors further down that use on the G11 mount).
I have some information if you are looking into buying a telescope or are new to astronomy.
I made the primary mirror, spider and the scope itself and I'm pretty happy with my first ATM attempt. It's a great wide-field scope with decent light gathering in a fairly short tube form. Set-up is a snap since there's only two pieces and this has become my one-night-stand scope of choice and great for Halloween night. I enjoyed the optics making part of this enough that it was followed up with a 12.5", 18" and 16"
The Esprit 100ED f/5.5 refractor. This is an amazing astrophotography telescope. Most of my astro photos have been re-shot using this telescope and the quality difference is obvious.
This is set up on the Losmandy G11 mount. I have shot quite a few astro photos from the backyard with this setup.
This is the Megrez 80SD (3.1") f/6 refractor on the G11 mount. There's also an alt/az home-made mount. I bought the Megrez initially for a trip to New Mexico, but it has been great for lunar and solar viewing. The Messier objects views were far better than I expected with this little scope. The tube is built like a tank also.
The SeeStar S50 f/5 refractor is, by far, the most portable real telescope that I have ever used. While it doesn't have an eyepiece it allows you to see targets that you would never see visually, especially in the city.
Locally a group os S50 owners has formed the Very Small Array (VSA) group. Don't confuse this with the Very Large Array (VLA) in Arizona. The VSA members all shoot the same target and then pool hundreds or even thousands of their 10 second images and combine (stack) them into some awesome deep sky photos.
