Astro ImageParacorr

BIG Paracorr User Profile:
Jay Butler

NGC7000 Cygnus Wall” by flickr.com user Jay W Butler. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Paracorr logo is trademark of Tele Vue Optics, Inc.

From his backyard observatory in Bountiful, Utah, in the western foothills of the Wasatch Mountains, Jay Butler images the heavens with his 10″ f/4 fast Newtonian – equipped with a Tele Vue BIG Paracorr Type-2. Despite the poor seeing – from suburban light pollution and strong updrafts from the valley floor – he’s been able to score a medley of celestial clusters, galaxies, and nebulae that cross his sky. We asked Jay why he choose the BIG Paracorr to use as the coma corrector in his fast Newtonian. He told us in his own words:

I chose the Big Paracorr because it is the perfect match for the optics of my 10″ f/4 Newtonian astrograph. It gives me nice round stars without vignetting all the way out to the corners of my camera’s KAF-16200 CCD. And whatever the seeing, the Big Paracorr gives me sharper and deeper images than I have ever been able to attain with other high-end equipment combinations. This enables me to capture objects of interest that used to require an hour’s drive out to the desert west of the city.

IC443 and Propus” by flickr.com user Jay W Butler. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Equipment Details

Jay’s system consists of a 10″ f/4.1 Astro Systeme Austria ASA10N Newtonian astrograph with Tele Vue BIG (3”) Paracorr coma corrector. Imaging is done with an SBIG FW8G-STXL filter wheel with Baader filters. The camera is the SBIG STXL-16200M.

Jay’s astrograph setup for imaging.
BIG Paracorr Type-2 (VIP-3010) is the 3″ version of the Paracorr designed for imaging with big chips. Click to enlarge diagram.

About 3″ BIG Paracorr Type-2 (VIP-3010)

Tele Vue’s BIG Paracorr Type-2 accessory turns fast Newtonians into astrographs by making color-free coma (star elongation) corrections to the optics. This offers optical benefits for amateurs and professionals using CCD formats as large as 52mm diagonal. Back focal length has been extended to 80mm to allow for additional accessories to be placed in the optical path. At f/3, the Paracorr  makes star images at the edge of the field of view 25 times smaller than without any correction – making it an essential accessory for wide-field imaging through fast Newtonians with big chips. Ask your scope builder to include one in your next build.

More Info

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