Astrophotography with small telescopes

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The Schmidt Camera

My Schmidt Camera mounted on a GP mount with a 60mm guidescope [107 KB GIF]

A Schmidt Camera is a specialised telescope for taking wide-field images. It is only useable for photography and provides very sharp and detailed images of the sky. Many discoveries have been made using Schmidt Cameras such as the BIG Schmidt on Mt. Palomar for the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey in 1950 or the Schmidt Cameras at ESO or the Anglo Australian Observatory at Siding Springs.
My Schmidt Camera is a used 5.5" camera from Celestron.

Left side: my Schmidt Camera with guidescope mounted on a Vixen GP mount, during an oberving session of comet Hale-Bopp.