My Primary Imaging System

For three and a half years I have been reading, studying, testing, and practicing astrophotography. This picture is my newest gear, (with some gear I have been using), that is now my primary imaging system. From my front yard I can take images of the Moon over my house but as for DSO imaging I can’t see squat, plus I can’t even see Polaris to make a polar alignment. As much as I would like to buy a more robust system, (EQ-6 Pro mount and either a Stellarvue SCX102T or even a Skywatcher Esprit 100 ED APO Triplet telescope), these are not conducive as a portable system; some of you might think it is but at my age they are not. So I have chosen this system to use and at the moment I will have to travel 150 -160 miles (240- 260 km) to one of two remote dark sky sites for an all-night imaging session.

Camera: a modified Canon T7i (800D).

Lens: Sigma 150-600 mm focal length contemporary telephoto lens with 90 mm aperture. This lens is super; it makes very sharp images when my eyes can focus it correctly. I got this for the imaging properties and the weight (6 lbs./ 2.7 kg) and I use it for more than astrophotography; grandkids sports and nature.

Auto Guiding: Mounting on top the camera is the ZWO Guide Scope with a ZWO ASI 120mm S CMOS camera. This system will be used for two functions. First the mount will perform a rough polar alignment then I will use this scope and SharpCap to perform a more precise polar alignment. Then once aligned I will point my camera to a chosen DSO and use this scope and PHD2 for Auto-Guiding.

Mount: I have chosen the iOptron SkyGuider Pro as my portable mount. I can do a rough polar alignment with the built-in polar scope. The mount can easily hold my imaging system. I want to give special thanks to Kurt Zeppetello and his YouTube video on this system that got me thinking about this mount and to Peter Zelinka YouTube videos on both the SkyGuider Pro and Auto-Guiding with the SkyGuider Pro.

Extra: Pictured here is also a Dew-Not Heater strip, a Jackery Portable Power Station, and Intervalometer.

To most astrophotographers this system is primitive; there is no Go-To computer on the mount to slew the imaging system to a DSO. I have to know where the DSO is in the sky and manually point my camera there. Also, although they are still used, I will be imaging with a DSLR camera, not a more robust ZWO camera. But this gets me outside, under the stars, manually imaging my system which I find more rewarding.