This is the most minimal rig I could build so that I can carry with me while travelling.
The mount is set up and aligned in alt-az mode.
I'm using the 3d printed rings to mount the Samyang 135 lens and zwo focuser.
The battery would last for 2-3 hours with the ASI533MM at 0 degrees.
Then I would take images of 2-5 seconds at f/2 to avoid any star trails due to field rotation and not perfect guiding. No guide scope used…
I was very much surprised by the results on a Bortle 2-3 sky with the RGB filter set and total integration times around .5 to 1h!
My place was close the island port, so I had some light pollution east, and dark skies southwest.
I have only really used this setup while on the Greek island of Sikinos for a few days, here are the images taken:
The Lagoon and Trifid NebulaeThe Andromeda GalaxyCygnus LoopN. America NebulaI have converted it to an EQ setup since, replacing the AzGti with my new iOptron HEM15. This has increased the weight and compromised portability, but the unguided altaz setup has a few downsides:
- The field of view drifts slowly but surely. No matter how good a 3 star align I would try to do. So, I would then need to stop after 10-15 minutes and recenter.
- The field of view rotates and you need to crop and the 533 sensor is already small.
- The very short exposure times do give impressive signal on very dark skies, but still not high enough ADU count. I had to try some stretching before normal processing, else some PI tools would create quantisation on the nebulosity.
- I was never able to make goto and centre work with the ASIAIR. I think the problem was the AzGti hand controller has a newer version firmware that is not supported…
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