over the last three or four years, since I began to do astro photography. I developed a method of handling my equipment. This works for me. But before I write some lines about it, I want to explain the reason for this thread. Astro photography became a bit of a passion and I made some progress in handling my setups. But I was wondering, if maybe there are some better solutions or at least ideas how to improve or optimize my own handling strategies. So please feel free to write whatever you think may be interesting to other users.
I began to do AP with an old Canon 5D Mark II. The camera died during a snow storm in the alps some years ago. The exposure meter didn't work anymore and so it becomes kind of useless for normal photography. So I astro modded the camera myself and bought a simple motorized mount without any computer connection. Without much money, I did most of the stuff myself. The main work was to built my own power supply based an a lead battery and during friday and saturday nights, I drove to a dark location and slept out in the fields, while my small Laptop and APT were taking images of the sky. There were some drawbacks. If you are limited to fridays and saturdays, the clear and moonless nights could be counted with maybe two hands during a year. I often was out there and clouds came so I had to bring everything back home. This, beside some others, was the main reason why I tend lose my motivation. So a solution was needed.
The first thing I did was to buy an EQ6-R Pro mount. Some time later, I got a cheapish 8" Newton, a coma corrector, an ASI 183MM, … So my journey really began. However, today I use 3 mounts and 3 setups simultaniously. I put all of them in the garden next to my house. Not the best place to do AP, but it enables me to do it even during the week and remotely control everything from my couch. I managed to install power and ethernet on a fence, where I connected everyting to. For every mount, I have a computer that I put in nearly water proof boxes. If one fails, chances are good the other two keep getting images. The mounts were covered during bad weather periods or the days with 3 Telegizmo 365 covers. Also not ideal, but it allows me to keep everything set up even during the winters. It's amazing, how everything handels those temperature and humidity changes. But maybe not forever.
Telescope wise, today I own 5 different ones. I build controllable DIY power boxes for each of them and use the scripts in Nina to control them. Every telescope is setup nearly the same. I have two cables for each scope. One is a custom power supply cable that uses the same connector for every scope. The second is the USB cable to the hub that is also mounted on the scopes itself. Every scope is set up "ready to use" with a guide system, dew heaters and all the stuff you need to image. So basically, If I decide to image a new subject, it took me about 2 minutes to change the setup to what I need. This solution wasn't cheap, but it is really comfortable. The only thing I need to change are the main cameras and the filter wheels. They are way too expensive for me to have spare ones. I already invested a crazy amount of money in this hobby… But who am I telling this
While I am really happy to work this way, it is not the optimal solution. The next step is to built at least two pier mounts and later built a roll off roof observatory around them. I am not sure, if I will include the third setup as well. But if that's done, I may upgrade to a higher quality scope, a … I guess you know where this leads to, didn't you?
So that's the way I did it. I did a lot of DIY stuff and still put a lot of money for example in the guiding cams, books, software, adapters and much more. But I think, every new piece of equipment was a step forward and offered some new possibilities.
But I am really interested in how you improved on AP and what your expereiences were. There are not many people around my place I could ask, so I send my interests out to the astrobin world. Thanks for taking the time to write some lines.
CS
Christian
