My Equipment

Telescope

GSO Photo Newton 200/800mm

My main telescope is a GSO (Guan Sheng Optical) photo Newton with 200mm mirror diameter and 800mm focal length. With a focal ratio of f/4 this telescope is predestinated for astro photography.
In order to illuminate the full field of my Canon 40Da the original secondary mirror (63mm diameter) was replaced with a larger one with 70mm diameter. For increasing the constrast I've laminated the complete scope inside with black velours.
To avoid coma, I'm using the TeleVue Paracorr coma corrector. This corrector corrects the complete field of my camera perfectly with an extension of the focal length of 15% up to 920mm.

Key Facts GSO 200/800mm:

Aperature	203mm
Focal length	800mm
Focal ratio	f/4
Diameter secondary mirror	70mm
Focuser	2" Crayford with 1:10 Ratio
Weight	8,7kg

Equatorial Mount - Losmandy G11 and Gemini Goto

After a MEADE LXD-55, a EQ-6 I am now a satisfied owner of a Losmandy G11 equatorial mount with the Gemini Goto control. I've installed the mount on a steel column which is doweled on my roof-deck. The column only provides a EQ-6 connection. Therefore I've purchased the original Losmandy MA adapter, which works fine.

Key Facts Losmandy G11:

Weight	17,5kg (Equatorial head)
Capacity	approx. 30kg
Achsen	36mm stainless steel axis
Worm gears	143mm Diameter - 360 Tooth

The Gemini Goto control replaces the original Losmandy control and offers among other things goto functionality. Actually goto functionality is rather unimportant for photography, however it saves a lot of time, especially when searching for faint objects which are nearly unvisible.
The moving speed is with up to 6° per second pretty high at very low noise what's good for my neighbourhood ;).

The Gemini Control's Object catalog provides:

110	Messier Objects
7840	NCG Objects
5386	IC Objects
313	Sharpless 2 Objects
17635	Stars

Camera - Canon 40Da

I'm using a modified Canon 40D for imaging. For increasing the H-α sensivity (the emission line of most nebulas) the original filter was replaced by a BCF filter from Firma Baader-Planetarium.
Thanks to the replaced filter, very low noise, 14 bit data, RAW format and Live View functionality, which makes focussing very simple, this camera could be considered as an adequate astro camera. Only at warm nights the missing cooling leads to increased background noise.

Key Facts Canon 40D:

Chip size	22,2 x 14,8 mm (CMOS)
Resolution	3.888 x 2.592 Pixel (RAW)
Pixel isze	5,7 μm
ISO speed	100 - 3200

Setup

That's my imaging setup with the Newton. I'm using a FH refractor with 80mm diameter and 900mm focal length as guiding scope. In order to avoid drift problems, the guiding scope has regular tube rings which are rock-solid screwed with the tube rings of the Newton. My guiding camera is an ALccd5 (QHY5). For being somewhat more flexible when looking for guiding stars, I'm using a excenter which allows to search in the complete field of view for a suitable guiding star without changing the position of the telescope. For autoguiding and controlling the exposures series I use the freeware software Guidemaster of Matthias Garzarolli.