Back in the 1980's, one of my friends bought a telescope right around the time of Halley's Comet. It was a Celestron Comet Catcher, essentially a 5.5 inch f/3.64 Schmidt Newtonian telescope. We used it quite a lot and it delivered really nice wide field views, perfect for looking at comets and more.
Digging through my Halley memorabilia whilce cleaning up brought to mind this classic scope, and so I went hunting to add a little nostalgia piece to my collection. I placed an ad on Cloudy Nights, made a deal with a seller and ordered it. I was going to put it on a simple Alt-Az head and a tripod, but I got such a good deal on a practically new ZWO AM3 mount witht he carbon fiber tripod that I decided to go with it. That way I would have a "spare" goto mount if I have any trouble with my EQ6 Pro.
I am working to add an older ASIAir Pro to the4 AM3 with a finder camera on it to do some creative things with plate solving and positioning for visual use, and we will all have some fun with this used scope under some dark skies very soon. I am working on it still, adding that finder and looking at doing something better with the collimation system - something like Bob's knobs. I will get this scope lined out nicely. My new VISUAL instrument.
I've waited a long time for this scope and I finally have one. I don;t intend on getting rid of it any time soon.
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