My Equipment
My gear: Used to photograph the Moon and all Deep Sky objects (Galaxies, Nebulas, Clusters, Comets, etc) up to magnitude 7.5. - SkyWatcher Evostar 72ED Apochromatic Refractor Telescope, 72/420 mm F/5.8 - CCD47 0.67x Flattener / Reducer (72ED becomes 72/335 mm F/4.6) - ZWO EAF (Electronic Focuser 12V/USB) - ZWO ASI183MC Pro cooled camera (21 MPixels dedicated One shot Color Camera) + ZWO EFW (Electronic Filter Wheel - 5 Filters) - Note 1 - Askar FMA135 Apochromatic Refractor Telescope, 30/135mm F/4.5, normally used as guide scope (Also used for Wide-Field captures together with the ASI183MC Pro OSC camera) - ZWO ASI120MM mini guiding camera - Skywatcher HEQ5PRO Mount (Rowan Belt drive) + Tripod - ZWO ASIAIR PRO Controller. - Note 2 Capturing/Controller software: - Asiair Pro for iOS / Android version 2.1.2 (firmware: 10.92) Photo stacking: - ZWO ASI Studio v 1.9.3 (25/11/2023) - free - DSS-Deep Sky Stacker 5.1.5 (by Luc Coiffier, David C.Partridge, Tony Cook, Mat Draper, Simon C. Smith, Vitali Pelenjow and Tomas Tatara) - free Photo processing: - Adobe Photoshop 24.7.0 - not free Moon/Planets stacking/processing Software: - ZWO's ASI Studio v 1.9.3 - free - PIPP 2.5.9 - Planetary Imaging PreProcessor (by Chris Garry) - free - AutoStakkert! 3.0.14 (by Emil Kraaikamp) - free (occasional use) - Registax6 (by Cor Berrevots) - free (occasional use) - Adobe Photoshop 24.7.0 - not free Capturing and sequence processing computers: - Raspberry Pi based, ZWO ASIAIR PRO Controller running software v 2.1.2 and Firmware v 10.92 (Beta) - TCL 20R 5G Android based smartphone (human interface) as from August 2022 - iPad Air3 - Windows 11 PC, using Bluestacks 5 Android Emulator for Windows to run ASIAIR App Processing and data backup: - Lenovo Legion Y540 (gamer grade PC) Intel 6 Core i7-9750H CPU @ 2.60 Ghz 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD Hd, running Windows 11, version 22H2 Array of 2x 2TB SSD for storing 1x 4TB Fast HDD for backup Notes: Note 1: Filters mounted: - Astronomik Light Pollution 1.25" - ZWO Dual-Band ASIDB125 (Ha/O3) - ZWO Sii (Narrowband Sulphur) 1.25" 7nm - Optolong L-eXtreme dual-band 7nm (Ha/O3) Note 2: Raspberry Pi based computer which controls all Astrophotography session matters like Polar alignment, Focusing, Photography sequence, all controlled via Wi-Fi from an iPad/Android App.
