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Around $750 and everything except the tracker was used...
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Do I include moving to bortle 1 skies When I retired ? What I did except more like Bortle 2-3. The problem with Bortle One and retirement is that Bortle One is almost always way too far from medical care.  |
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Here's my astrophotography gear that's currently taking 600s guided exposures of the Pelican Nebula in narrowband:
Total comes up to $1356, however I haven't bought the D5500 with astrophotography in mind - for that I bought a used D5100 which I already modded to full spectrum, but I still need to assemble a USB shutter release cable cause D5100 doesn't normally support exposures longer than 30s through software. The D5100 comes up to $162 ($137 body used + $13 aliexpress glass filter + $6 aliexpress USB relay + $6 shutter relase). With the D5100 instead of D5500 my gear will total $1218. Obviously over the years I spent a bit more on bits and pieces that probably add up to no more than $1600. I'm kinda in the zone of optimizing my imaging gear for the lowest possible cost and I think it's going pretty good, although I am thinking of buying an electronic focuser cause that's a pain in the butt - however I'm concerned about the weight of my scope, cause I'm already at the limit of my counter weight, so likely on the limit of the mount as well. And yeah, I'd love to have a EQ5 mount instead of EQ3-2 but that's what I bought back in 2017 and I'm gonna make it work for as long as I can. |
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Bill McLaughlin:Do I include moving to bortle 1 skies When I retired ? exactly one of my thoughts at 73. in the old days we'd just die 🤪. -john |
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John Favalessa:Bill McLaughlin:Do I include moving to bortle 1 skies When I retired ? And that is why building a remote operation is attractive and worth the effort, I built a place Bortle in 1-2 that is remotely operated...73 as well...Dave |
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Dave Erickson:John Favalessa:Bill McLaughlin:Do I include moving to bortle 1 skies When I retired ? Hearing that Dave, I'm even more impressed with what you built up there! |
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Dave Erickson:John Favalessa:Bill McLaughlin:Do I include moving to bortle 1 skies When I retired ? Thanks John, the motivations have matured over time. The original intent, a couple of decades ago, was being able to do astronomy from anywhere in the world as I traveled to support my employers business interests as a technical executive. Now I realize that I am not as young as I was and being close to infrastructure is important...Dave |
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Good to see this topic is still going. If you asked me back in 2010-2015 i will say i didn't spend anything astro, but i spent nearly $100k only for photography gear, that time i was still at job and i left it by beginning of 2014 so then i started to spend less and less, i won't mention what i bought back then, but the most expensive item i bought back then was my Hasselblad H4D-60mp, the body alone was about $50k or so, i bought it after i traded in my H3DII-39mp to the same store to fund H4D, and bought three lenses for it by the time which are non cheap, so you can imagine. In astrophotography i started in 2017, that year the expensive things i bought were mount AZ-EQ6 and QHY163M and Astrodon Ha 5nm 1.25", all other stuff were almost ok such as ST80 and Optolong filters and two planetary cameras, then next year 2018 i started with cheap last piece of Meade 8" F/5 and Skywatcher 180mm Maksutov, i can't remember what else i bought during that time until 2020, that year of COVID is when i started shopping astro gear until today, so i ended up with two TS Optics 90mm f/6 triplets, two 60mm f/6 doublets different brands, ASI1600MM Pro, QHY294M-Pro, Askar FRA400, Orion ST80, RC10 truss, 106mm f/6.6, ToupTek IMX571 color and mono, two mini PCs, two 2" NB filters and 2" dual band filter, two Skywatcher AZ-GTi, Lunt CaK B1200, Quark Combo chromo, Antlia CaK wedge, plenty of planetary cameras again, and more accessories, i forgot how much i spent, all that only while i am a jobless, so within like 3 years i bought what i could buy in 10 years, only because i know i won't live longer and i found nice offers for most of those, so instead of spending like $12k i spent like almost $9k for same items, i saved a lot, and that alone made me to keep shopping buying until today without imaging, and i am still not done, can't think about what else i should add, until i tell myself: "ENOUUUUUGHHHHH", i stopped photography back then, maybe time for me to put an end for my astro shopping too sooner or later. |
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Currently.... A lot... In AUD, new prices listed (where I remember them) Mounts: Losmandy G11 Gemini - $7499 Avalon Instruments M-Zero - $7199 Cameras: Player One Artemis-C Pro - $1430 Sbig ST8300M - $2200 ZWO 120mm MINI - $149 Scopes: Askar 65PHQ - $1500 GSO 8" F/4 Newtonian - $749 Filters: Astrodon LRGB filterset (36mm unmounted) - $1350 Optolong Ha SII OIII 7nm (36mm unmounted) - $849 Player One UV/IR Block (2" mounted) - $79 Askar D1 7nm Ha/OIII (2" mounted) - $489 Accessories: SBIG CFW-8-8300 - $1100 Player One FHD-OAG Max - $195 Player One Filter-Drawer Max - $129 Askar 65PHQ 0.75x Reducer - $350 0.85x Coma corrector - $550 Wanderer Astro Powerbox Ultimate (x2) - $1080 PrimaLuceLabs Rings/Dovetails (lots...) - $650 Countless adapters, extension tubes, riser blocks. ?? 12.8v 100AH batteries (1 per rig) for the field - $800 12.8v 10A power supplies (AC adapters for use at home and places where power is available) - $240 Computers: RDP access: Samsung Galaxy Tab S8+ (used to RDP into Mele Quieter 3Q's when imaging) - $2195 Acquisition Rigs: Mele Quieter 3Q (x2) - $700 Processing Rig: (2x 14c/28t CPU's, 64GB RAM, 4x 2Tb nvme SSD's, nVidia GTX-1080 GPU) - $1300 Software: PixInsight $499 RC BlurXterminator $150 RC NoiseXterminator $100 RC StarXterminator $100 Total: $33,631 new... A few of those things I've owned for between 10 and 19 years, so it wasn't an 'all at once' expense, and some of those items I bought used... Over the years I've had probably 25 different scopes ranging from cheap, nasty $300 newtonians to Astro-Physics 130 Starfire APO refractors, a lovely little TMB 80/480, the FSQ80EDX, a Meade 16" LX200, and a 12.5" RCOS... I'd hate to get all the gear I've owned over the years and price up what I've spent in the last 15~20 years... |
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Steven: Might need to update my list quite a bit now.. As I had a job change with a little more.. expendable.. money.. so that means more purchases...!! And now I can run 3 rigs. (one of which is a semi dual) - And could probably Frankenstein a 4th rig together with a regular camera. All the BOLD and underlined is new to the list as for pricing... if you buy it all new, you're probably looking at about 35.000-36.000 euro however: Quite a few items are bought during deals, second hand, eBay auctions, or other countries with better currencies, etc. one big example; ZWO 2600MM, 3300+ euro in Europe , or if you purchase at ZWO themselves; it's 1999 dollars + 200 dollar import =~1950 euro same for the guide cameras, filterwheels, ZWO AM3, and anything ZWO related. Scopes: *** ZWO FF80APO - 1789 euro *** Rokinon 135 - 520 euro ***Skywatcher Skymax 102 - 299 euro Esprit 80ED+corrector - 1575 euro Redcat 51 - 999 euro Samyang 135 - 520 euro Coronado PST - 900 euro Skywatcher 150/750 PDS + Coma corrector - 650 euro Camera's: *** 2600MM - 3290 euro *** 174 MM mini - 499 euro 2600MM - 3290 euro 183MM - 1390 euro 183MC - 1090 euro 290 MM mini - 429 euro 290 MM - 449 euro 120 MM - 259 euro Mounts: *** ZWO AM3 - 1995 euro *** Skywatcher star adventurer - 450 euro EQ6-R pro - 1920 euro Celestron AVX - 1375 euro Skywatcher EQ3 - 699 euro Primalucelab mounting rings/plates ~ 450 euro Filters: *** Anltia 3nm PRO SHO set (2") - 1600 euro *** 2x Antlia LRGB set (36mm & 2") - 1100 euro Antlia 3nm SHO set: 1242 euro Optolong SHO set: 419 euro Optolong RGB: 229 euro Optolong L-Extreme: 279 euro Optolong L-Pro: 179 euro Filterwheels/drawers: *** Filterwheel 7x 2" - 599 euro Filterwheel 7x36mm: 599 euro Filterwheel mini: 239 euro Filter drawer + extra drawer: 168 euro Guiding: ***ZWO OAG L - 249 euro OAG - 170 euro ZWO OAG L - 249 euro William optics mini guide scope - 149 euro Controlling: ***ASIAIR Pro (3rd one) - 399 euro ***ASIAIR Mini - 199 euro ***ZWO EAF (3rd one) - 199 euro ASIAIR Pro x 2 - 798 euro ASIAIR PLUS - 429 euro ZWO EAF x2 - 518 euro Others: Adapters, cables, spacers, dew heaters, batinov masks, mounting rings, covers, collimators, etc, etc ~ 800-900 euro. Software: Pixinsight, AstroPixelProcessor, Photoshop  |
