SCOPES of the Westminster Astronomical Society, Inc.

        Over the years the club has acquired a number of optical observing instruments and accessories that are made available for members to borrow. The telescopes and other items in the collection have been constructed by members, purchased by the club, and donated to us by club members and by people in the community.

        Here is a description of telescopes and accessories owned by the club followed by information on how they may be borrowed by club members for their own personal use.

8" "PushTo" Dobsonian. The 8" Orion XT8 Sky Quest Intelliscope is a "PushTo" telescope equipped with a computer-assisted Object Locator. Features include a 9x50 finder scope and 2" Crayford focuser with a 1¼" adapter. An illuminated keypad allows running on a 9 Volt battery provides the interface with the telescope. Two 1¼" Sirius Plössl eyepieces (25 mm and 10mm) are included. Donated by Michael Billingslea.

8" Dobsonian. The 8" Celestron Star Hopper Dobsonian was purchased by the club so that it would never be without a telescope. It has excellent optics and is fairly easy to use - just point and look. It is equipped with a 1x Telrad finder and eyepieces.

Deluxe 6" Equatorial Newtonian Reflector. Criterion was a prolific provider of relatively inexpensive Newtonian reflectors during the 1950's, 60's and 70's. This Deluxe 6" f/8 Dynascope has all the bells and whistles including a camera mount and guide scope refractor. It has a set of original eyepieces mounted in a turret and your choice of a wooden tripod or cast iron "permanent" pier. The polar clock drive runs on regular household AC current.

Standard 6" Equatorial Newtonian Reflector. Although the budget scope in the Criterion Dynascope series, these telescopes were immensely popular in the early decades of the latter half of the 20th century and prized for their superior optics and budget pricing. The 6" f/8 Newtonian telescope has a hollow steel pier on aluminum legs and a 110V AC clock drive.

4.5" "Goto" Newtonian Reflector. This is a computer-controlled Meade DS-114 (114 mm or 4.5 inches) Newtonian has full "Goto" capability. Anyone interested in dabbling in goto telescopes would definitely find this telescope to be quite a learning experience. Telescope has three eyepieces (two are useless), a small finder, and a hand-held keypad. Powered by 10 (yes, 10!) AA batteries or a 12V power supply (not provided).

Edmund 4" Newtonian. This classic Edmund Scientific 4" Newtonian on a German Equatorial mounting was donated by a guest at one of our meetings years ago. It gives amazingly crisp images and does not have a clock drive.

20x100mm Apogee Binoculars. WASI members Dave Gede and Dave Oler donated these large binoculars with a 100mm aperture. In addition, Dave Oler also donated a tripod mounting with a parallelogram design that was hand built by another WASI member, Paul Henze.