Paul Haese plans to use his 18” f4.5 for planetary imaging with a DMK set-up and true tech filter wheel. Paul is already up there with the best, but really wants to strive for better images whilst imaging around 9000-11000mm in focal length; maybe even be the best.

Paul submits images to Dr John Rogers in England and Hans-Joerg Mettig in Germany who both do reports of cloud formation and activity on Jupiter. There are about 30 imagers involved around the globe, each doing great work despite local conditions.

Along with colleague Anthony Wesley, Paul is planning to develop a cooling cover by installing five Peltier coolers on a custom built aluminium front plate with corresponding fans on the inner face which will in effect create a refrigerator in the rocker box. This way, the Peltiers can be run on the way to a site or even at home before taking the scope outside and setting up. This will assist in helping the mirror reach ambient temperature and thereby prevent wave fronts from ruining imaging in good seeing conditions.

Paul enthused: “I am truly excited about the arrival of my new scope and glad that I can help keep some of the money within Australia. Supporting an Australian manufacturer just places icing on the cake. So much of astronomy related products are made in another country. Besides that Peter really cares about his product and pleasing his customer. A rare breed in this day.”