TheSkySearchers

Hi, some time without posting because of weather here in Guatemala.

I started this hobby trying to take pictures of the Lunar Eclipse of November 7, 2022, I wasn't able to slower the shutter enough without blurriness, so I looked online how other people was able to take those great pictures, and I bough the Star Adventurer GTi as it was available in BHPhoto.com. Because our weather here, I wasn't able to try it out until august 2023, and oh boy, what an amazing pice of equipment it is. Because I'm unable to see Polaris, I was looking on other ways to get a polar alignment, which make me discover N.I.N.A. and it's 3-point alignment plug-in, what a blessing it is, and then I was able to take pictures of other celestial objects, like Orion Nebula and the Pleiades, and then I realized I'm in the wrong location for DSO I have a Bortle 6 to 7 sky.

On January 6 of this year, I went to the beach, a remote location with a Bortle 3 sky, I took some great images there, now the city light wasn't an issue, noise was, I guess I need some dithering, but my current setup is a Canon EOS R5, a Tamron 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC lens, and the Star Adventurer GTi. Here are some of the pictures and my current setup:


So, I decided to create a roadmap of the equipment to get in order to get better pictures, and I want to share it with you for two reasons, maybe it could help someone, and maybe any of you have better suggestions. Consider that I'm not a dentist or plastic surgeon living in California I'm a web developer from Guatemala, that is why I plan to get each pice of gear in phases, so here it is:

1. A guider in order to be able to have longer exposure times and dithering.
I'm thinking of the "SV165 Mini Guider Scope 120mm f/4" combined with the "ZWO ASI120MM-MINI", also, some dew heaters for both, the Tamron lens and the guider scope, the "Dew-Not Dew Heater Strip - 6.5" and the "Dew-Not Dew Heater Strip - 15.5" for the Tamron:


2. A mini-pc, between the ZWO ASIAIR Plus or the Mini, I have not decided yet which one, and the "ZWO 32GB ASIAIR Plus Wi-Fi Camera Controller Kit with ASI120MM-Mini Camera & 30mm f/4 Mini Guide Scope # ASIAIR-PLUS-KIT2" combo looks quite nice, saving me the first phase, but the price went from $492.30 to $547.00

3. A better "lens" and camera. After seeing some pictures online, I think that the "William Optics RedCat 51 II" + "ASI183MC Pro" produce great images, but I'm also looking at the "ASI2600MC Pro" and the "ASI533MC Pro", have not decided yet, my budget will decide

4. A better equatorial mount and a focuser, seeing how popular it is and watching some reviews, I guess that the "ZWO AM5" is the indicated, and the "ZWO EAF" for the "RedCat 51 II".

I guess with that, a portable setup is complete, ignoring the need for an external battery and some cables. Hope to make in the next couple of years.

I posted my first image on AstroBin this year, and got a like from some fellow who has a glorious setup, his image of the Andromeda Galaxy is gorgeous, but I could only imagine how hard was to take all his setup to that place, here it is:
https://www.astrobin.com/u2r0y6

So, any suggestion is appreciated.

P.D. I forgot to include something, I'm not sure on how to attach the guider to the EOS R5, I have the following cage, I guess I'll figure it out, but if some one have any idea, it'll appreciated
https://www.niceyrig.com/products/nicey ... -eos-r5-r6

nice shot , thx .

Nice work. You are on the right track. The ASIair is probably the best way to go but I don't know enough about the product to know if it will work with your camera. I use a miniPC and NINA myself and love the flexibility. But then you need a way to power your dew shields which then means another piece of kit like the Pegasus Astro power box. https://pegasusastro.com/products/pocke ... ance-gen2/

Very interesting story! First thing, is the ASIair Plus will easily and quickly allow you to polar align without looking at Polaris. You just need to start with your mount pointed as close to north as possible. After you set it up and turn everything on correctly, just move to an open area of the sky and do a plate solve. After which there is an option for "all sky polar align". Very easy. However... you may not even have to polar align if you are guiding and you are close enough to polar align by accident.

It looks like you cannon EOS R5 is now supported by the ASIair. Here is a link to currently supported cameras.

https://www.yuque.com/zwopkb/asiair/compatible-dslr-ml

Since you are looking at the ASI533MC Pro, I would go with that if possible. For a guide camera the ASI120mini is fine with the SVbony scope you mentioned as long as you have a wide field of view scope or camera (under 800mm). Anything greater than something close to 1000mm will require a bigger guide scope - at which point things get dicey and you want to check out Off Axis Guide equipment (very pricey).

Oh I forgot to mention... Awesome images of M45 and M42! Great detail and colors.

gcisko wrote: ↑Sat Mar 30, 2024 3:59 am Very interesting story! First thing, is the ASIair Plus will easily and quickly allow you to polar align without looking at Polaris. You just need to start with your mount pointed as close to north as possible. After you set it up and turn everything on correctly, just move to an open area of the sky and do a plate solve. After which there is an option for "all sky polar align". Very easy. However... you may not even have to polar align if you are guiding and you are close enough to polar align by accident.

You have no idea how hard I have battle to polar light without Polaris I 3D-printed an iPhone dovetail to place on the equatorial mount, and use the "Polar Scope Align Pro" to get a rough polar alignment, then, I use N.I.N.A.'s 3-point alignment pointing east, and do the manual corrections to the mount. I first bought only the "Star Adventurer GTi" head, and used with a photography tripod, I wasn't able to move the head east or west after that, only the small dials, so I get the tripod for that head and now I can make big corrections to the alignment.

gcisko wrote: ↑Sat Mar 30, 2024 3:59 am It looks like you cannon EOS R5 is now supported by the ASIair. Here is a link to currently supported cameras.

https://www.yuque.com/zwopkb/asiair/compatible-dslr-ml

I think I'll get the full bundle with the guider now.

gcisko wrote: ↑Sat Mar 30, 2024 3:59 am Since you are looking at the ASI533MC Pro, I would go with that if possible. For a guide camera the ASI120mini is fine with the SVbony scope you mentioned as long as you have a wide field of view scope or camera (under 800mm). Anything greater than something close to 1000mm will require a bigger guide scope - at which point things get dicey and you want to check out Off Axis Guide equipment (very pricey).

indeed, my Tamron has a max focal length of 600mm; the "ASI183MC Pro" has a sensor of 13.2x8.8mm, a crop factor of 2.73x in relation to a full frame camera, the "William Optics RedCat 51 WIFD" has a focal length of 250mm f/4.9, becoming like a 682mm f/14 full frame equivalent; considering that the "ASI120MM Mini" guider camera has a sensor size of 4.8mmx3.6mm with 1280x960px resolution (3.75μm), thus, a crop factor around 7.5x, and that both, the "SV165 Mini Guider Scope" and "ZWO Mini Guide Scope" are 120mm f/4, both become like a 900mm f/30, so, 900mm in guiding minus around 600 to 682mm for lights, gives a 218mm headroom for guiding and I don't think I'm doing planetary anytime soon

Now, I have to work harder to get the equipment, and the time off in some dark skies.

rodrigopolo wrote: ↑Sun Mar 31, 2024 9:33 pm indeed, my Tamron has a max focal length of 600mm; the "ASI183MC Pro" has a sensor of 13.2x8.8mm, a crop factor of 2.73x in relation to a full frame camera, the "William Optics RedCat 51 WIFD" has a focal length of 250mm f/4.9, becoming like a 682mm f/14 full frame equivalent; considering that the "ASI120MM Mini" guider camera has a sensor size of 4.8mmx3.6mm with 1280x960px resolution (3.75μm), thus, a crop factor around 7.5x, and that both, the "SV165 Mini Guider Scope" and "ZWO Mini Guide Scope" are 120mm f/4, both become like a 900mm f/30, so, 900mm in guiding minus around 600 to 682mm for lights, gives a 218mm headroom for guiding and I don't think I'm doing planetary anytime soon

Now, I have to work harder to get the equipment, and the time off in some dark skies.

Yes planetary imaging is a whole other thing with it's own problems/concerns!

Also please keep in mind that with the ASIair plus and a supported mount you do not need to see Polaris at all. Once you turn everything on you can move the mount, plate-solve then move to a target and sync and with luck the guiding will keep on track. If not you can do an "all sky polar align". Again Polaris is not needed. But it will polar align...

I have the dew-not dew heaters and they work great. zwo has an rca adapter splitter cable that will plug into one of the power ports on an asiair or any other mini pc that has rca style power ports. If you want the asiair make sure your camera is supported by it. Go to their webpage and view the supporting cameras. You will be locked into the ZWO eco system with the asiair because the only astro cameras compatible with it are ZWO only along with certain, Canon, Nikon, and Sony DSLR/Mirrorlwss cameras.