GIANT EASY-GUIDER shown mounted on a Celestron-14.

Giant focal reducing lens

The interior of the GIANT EASY-GUIDER has a 3.55" i.d. compartment for insertion of filters, or the removable 80mm clear aperture achromatic focal reducing lens. This lens has anti-reflection coatings and reduces the Celestron-14 focal ratio from f/10 to f/7.0.

This lens yields edge-to-edge pinpoint star images and full illumination. The 80mm lens can also be moved to the front of the guider to operate at f/5.5. With an extension tube, operation at f/4 becomes possible. Thus the f-ratio for both viewing and photography is adustable from f/4 to f/10 with the GIANT EASY-GUIDER. Knurled nylon thumbscrews are used throughout to avoid marring metal surfaces, and insure tight locking when tightened (they compress slightly).

Lumicon Giant Easy Guider and Meade Series 4000 F/3.3 CCD Focal reducer/Field flattener

Images obtained with these two setups:

Messier 2 (Lumicon Giant Easy Guider)
Messier 2 (Meade F/3.3 CCD Focal reducer)
Messier 15 (Lumicon Giant Easy Guider)
Messier 15 (Meade F/3.3 CCD Focal reducer)
Comparison image (M2)
Comparison image (M15)
Comparison image (NGC7479)