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.
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.
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…..
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….
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.