The Gear I Use to Make My Images
In order to “do” astrophotography, you can’t get around the need for gear!
On this page I will document the Telescope Rigs that I use to capture my images. One thing to keep in mind is that these rigs are NEVER static. They change and evolve over time. I will try to document those changes here. This has a few practical goals. First - it will document what state the rig was in when a given set of images were taken. Second, it will give you a feel for how things evolved as I progressed on this journey. Finally, it may give you ideas for your own rig!
In General, I am running three Telescope Platforms - typically all at the same time - to enable my imaging Projects. The First is the William Optics 132mm Platform. This is based on the first scope I used for imaging. The second platform is the Astro-Physics 130mm Platform. This second platform was unplanned and came about through a unique and fortuitous set of circumstances The third and most recent platform is the Askar FPA400 Platform - which was put together to enable both portable operations and more wide field capability.
The stories of these platform is found in this blog along with other pieces of equipment that greatly facilitate my astrophotographic endeavors.
The 4th Pier: The Sharpstar SCA260 V2 Platform Ver 1.0
This post documents the setup and configuration of my New ‘Galaxy” scope, the Sharpstar SCA260 V2.
The 4th Pier: Galaxy Scope, Part 2 - The Mount!
Part 2 of the series where I choose the element of my galaxy Scope platform.
In this post, I look at my Mount options and make a choice that I think will work best for me.
The 4th Pier: Choosing A Galaxy Scope for My Observatory
I need a telescope for the 4th pier of my new observatory! So, what kind of scope platform should I put together? I decided on a Galaxy Scope. This blog shares my thoughts on how to put this together - and it might just help you as well!
WO132 Version 1.0: My first imaging platform based on the William Optics 132mm f/7 FLT APO
After much research, and a few phone calls to the helpful friendly folks at Highpoint Scientific , my first rig was on order! Within a week I had everything I needed to start doing astrophotography. But of course, I had no real clue how to actually do ANY of it. I barely knew how to put the pieces together much less make them work. This was the start of my journey.
AP130 Version 0.5: Surprise - A Second Imaging Platform - Almost!
The start of a second imaging platform - or - how tripped into the deal of a lifetime !
WO132 Version 1.1: Adding A Polemaster Camera
I was still learning to use the main rig, when I soon made my first modification. I was doing the Polar Alignment the old fashioned way - using an illuminated polar scope. This caused me to kneel down on the driveway and look up through the polar axis. This was killing my knees, my back and my neck! I hated it and I was sure I was not getting very good alignments with it…..
AP130 Version 1.0: A Second Imaging Platform is Born!
Over the winter, I began to get things ready for the second platform. Clearly I had some work to do. I needed to determine what I was going to do for a camera, and I needed to determine what to do get the mount functioning at the precision needed.
AP130 Version 1.5: The Tri-Pier Arrives
Standardizing the base
Finally, the Tri-Pier and the its extension column arrived. This allowed me to standardize the base of the two telescope platforms. There are several reasons that made this useful. First - everything is the same when you are handling things in the dark. And secondly, I was in the process of revolutionizing how I setup at night…..
WO132 Version 2.0: A major upgrade to the William Optics 132mm FLT Platform
During August and September I was out shooting every clear night. I had learned a lot of things but I was also noticing several issues that were causing me problems as I did more imaging. I decided to do something to address those issues….
AP130 Version 1.8: Adding a Focus Motor to the Guidescope
Why a focuser for the Guidescope?
Basically I am making this change to make the platform consistent with the WO132 platform. I would like to be able to focus the guidescope remotely under computer control. I would also like to have the ability to swap camera and use the TV76 as a wide field imager (using the AP130 as the guide scope.
AP130 Version 2.0: Moving to a Next Generation Astro Camera…
Adding the next generation ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro camera and ZWO EFW 7x36 II EFW to the platform…
WO132 version 2.5: The Camera Rotator
During the Summer of 2020, whilst stuck at home because of Covid I became very in improving the automation of the platform and achieving a more precise framing of the shots I made…
WO132 version 3.0: Adding Wide Field Capability
For Christmas of 2020, my wife gave me a neat little wide field scope - the Sharpstar 61EDPHII! This little scope came with a Reducer/Flattener and would make a great wide field Astrograph. So I thought about how to use it.
WO132 version 3.5: Swapping from an OSC to a Mono Camera
I was very excited to get the ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro camera a while back. I ordered it when it was announced and then prepared to wait a long time to get it. When I did get it - I decided to put it onto the AP130 platform. That meant that I could move the ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro, along with its filter wheel over to my William Optics Platform. This now means that all of the platforms have been moved over to a mono camera and my ZWOASI924MC-Pro is now not in use.
WO132 version 4.0: Upgrading to a ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro Camera!
Version 4.0 of the Williams Optics 132mm platform is a major upgrade that involves adding a new 2600 series mono camera, a new 7x36mm EFW and filters, and a new WO Flattener and 0.8X Reducer that will support the larger format sensor and covert the scope to a much faster f/5.5 system.
This post documents the changes and discusses how I planned this change and how it was executed.
Askar FRA400 version 1.0: A New Portable Astrophotography Platform
This is my third telescope platform - this one is specifically designed for portability and travel.
AP130 Version 2.1: Moving to a Pier and a New Computer!
Moving the platform to the Whispering Skies Observatory means shifting to a new steel pier and a new computer!
WO132 version 4.1: Moving to a Steel Pier and a new Computer!
Version 4.1 of the Williams Optics 132mm platform is focused on moving into my newly completed Whispering Skies Observatory.
The upgrades include moving to a custom steel pier and shifting to a new Mele Quiter 4-C Micro Computer running Windows 11.
Askar FRA400 version 1.1: Streamlining the Guidescope mount
The portable scope platform is supposed to be, well, portable. That means light and compact. In determining how to pack this platform for travel, I realized that the finder scope mounting rings made no sense in this application and I changed them out with something both more rigid and compact - the William Optics 50mm base-slide ring set.
Askar FRA400 Platform Version 1.5: Adding a Camera Rotator!
After doing manual camera rotations to achieve the compositional framing that I plan - using SGP’s Framing and Mosaic Wizard - I finally decided to add a Camera Rotator to this rig to automate the rotation between objects and when getting flat cal frames for images shot with a specific camera rotation. While I had the rig apart, I re-tensioned the declination belt on the mount to reduce declination backlash.