My equipment

15" f/4.5 "Obsession" style dob

Built using Kriege/Berry's "The Dobsonian Telescope" book's guidelines
Swayze optics primary
2.6" Nova enduro-brite secondary
Starlight Instruments "Feathertouch" focusser
Crosman "red dot" finder
University Optics 8x50 finder
The Sky Commander you see on there is gone. I just stopped using DSCs and finally sold it after a few months of disuse.

You can check out some construction info on my ATM page here.

Observation desk/chest The idea for this has probably been used many times, though mine is a copy of one made by another Lowbrow Astronomer, Chris Sarnecki. It is just a cheap ($20 on sale at Target) wooden footlocker with four long wooden legs screwed on the bottom (the legs remove for transport). It has two compartments under a 1/4" plywood top; the larger compartment on the left is used as a library, and the smaller one on the right is currently being used as a toolbox, containing a plastic box with screwdrivers, nylon tie-wraps, pliers, and other generally useful stuff, and a 12V hair dryer (pick up from truck stop for $15).

Log computer. This is a venerable TRS-80 Model 100 laptop, really the first laptop ever, introduced in the early '80s. I use it to take notes in the field. I found that if I wrote notes with a pencil, by the end of the night the notes were terse or nonexistant, and illegible.

NOTE: as of spring 2003, I've switch to using a microcassette recorder, taking voice notes, and transcribing them after the session. It seems like a little more work, but I find I get a whole lot more observing done, since it's much faster to dictate than to type in the dark. Plus I can type later with the lights on and on a real machine than I can in the dark.

Here is some of the other stuff in the fleet:

Edmund Astroscan scope for travel - includes a couple of plossl eyepieces.
Howie Glatter laser collimator - if you get this, plan on loaning it to neighbors at every star party you go to! However, note that you STILL need a good cheshire/ sight tube collimation tool; the laser doesn't do everything, though it's a good final step.
Nagler 22mm type 4 eyepiece
Pentax XL 10.5mm ep - this is one sweet hunk of glass.
Televue Radian 5mm
Televue 1.25" 2x barlow - the Pentax responds well to this.
Lumicon UHC filter 1.25"
Thousand Oaks OIII filter 2"
Moon filter, a few color filters 1.25"
Minolta XL 7x50 binoculars
Celestron 15x70 binoculars

I have the following star charts:

Pocket Sky Atlas - this is really all I use anymore. Plenty of objects to keep anyone busy, good indexing.

I used to have a copy of Uranometria, but it was too much trouble to lug around all the time. It's awesome but I just wasn't using it.

I also print individual finder charts for objects using Sky Tools occasionally.

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