BIG Paracorr User Profile:
Jay Butler
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.
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.
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
- Paracorr Gallery on flickr.com
- Paracorr at Tele Vue website (mobile version)
- BIG Paracorr mechanical drawing.
- For connecting BIG Paracorr to your imager consider Precise Parts
- Read Paracorr’s role in the New Dobsonian Revolution (PDF) article from Astronomy Magazine
Did you observe, sketch, or image with Tele Vue gear? We’ll like your social media post on that if you tag it #televue and the gear used. Example:
#televue #paracorr #ngc7000
Do you want your Tele Vue images re-posted on Tele Vue Optics’ Social Media accounts? Use this hashtag for consideration:
#RPTVO
