2025 (Current)

It’s been a while since I’ve updated this page. In that time I’ve bought and sold many pieces of equipment. These days I’ve settled on a 3-scope mono setup housed in self-built, roof opening observatory.

Additionally I have a standalone scope and setup with an OSC attached.

Main: 3-Mono Scope Setup (Mono Deep Sky)

My main setup consists of 3 scopes:

2 x SharpStar 76EDPH (Red, Green, Sii and Ha)

Telescopes: 2 x SharpStar 76EDPH + 0.8x Reducer
Cameras: 2 x QHY268M
Filter Wheels: 2 x QHY CFW
Filters: Chroma LRGBSHO split across the two filter wheels (R+Sii, G+Ha)
Guiding: QHYOAG + Player One Sedna-M Guide Cam
Mount: ZWO AM5N
Autofocus: Pegasus FocusCube and ZWO EAF
Power/Hub: 2 x Pegasus Saddle Powerbox
Control: 1 x Eagle 3 & Miele QuietPC 4
Flatpanels: 2 x DeepSkyDad OFP2

1 x Askar FRA600 + 0.7x F/3.9 Reducer (Blue, Oiii, L)

Telescope: Askar FRA600 + F/3.9 Reducer
Camera: QHY268M
Filter Wheel: QHY CFW
Filters: Chroma Blue, Oiii and Luminance
Guiding: QHYOAG + Player One Sedna-M Guide Cam
Mount: ZWO AM5
Autofocus: ZWO EAF
Power/Hub: Pegasus Saddle Powerbox
Control: Miele QuietPC 4
Flatpanel: DeepSkyDad OFP2

OSC Additional Scope Setup (Galaxies)

SharpStar 107PH OSC

Telescope: SharpStar 107PH with optional 0.8x Reducer
Camera: Player One Uranas-C Pro OSC
Filter Draw: 2in Altair Filter Drawer
Filters:
- Chroma LoGlow
- Antlia Triband RGB
- Antlia ALP-T Narrowband
- Askar Colour Magic Sii 3nm
- Optolong L-eNhance
Mount: ZWO AM5
Autofocus: ZWO EAF
Power/Hub: Pegasus Saddle Powerbox
Control: Miele QuietPC 4

Other

Nikon D610A Astro Converted (full conversion) (Light, Widefield OSC)

Telescope: Askar FMA180 Pro
Camera: Nikpn D610 Full Frame Astromodified Full Conversion
Filters: Any of the 2in filters above
Autofocus: ZWO EAF
Guidescope: Altair Guidescope
Guidecam: ZWO 178C

2019 (Past)

2018 – August 2019

Mount

SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro with EQ6 8in extension pier and Altair TMS Dual Losmandy Side-By-Side mounting plate.
QHYCCD Polemaster
Pegasus Pocket Power Box (for dew heater power and control, power 183C TEC cooling and Pegasus Motor Control)

Telescopes

Ostara HR152 Achromat Refractor with Pegasus Motor Focus Controller and Kendrick Dew Heater
Altair Starwave 102ED-R Refractor with Pegasus Motor Focus Controller and AstroZap Dew Heater
TS Optics 65mm Apo Quad Refractor (TSAPO65Q) with Pegasus Motor Focus Controller
- Guide: Orion 50mm Guidescope with USB powered dew heater strap

Cameras

ZWO ASI294MC Pro Cooled (Previous: Altair 178C and Altair 183C)
- ZWO 5-Position Electronic Filter Wheel (ZWO EWFmini)

Altair GPCAMv2 130M (for Guiding)

Imaging Capture Hardware + Software

Gigabyte BRIX
- Intel Core i3 1.7GHz, 8Gb Ram, 512Gb SATA
- Connected to TP-Link outdoor CPE510 in Client mode (5Ghz)
EQDir cable (direct connection between remote imaging PC and EQ6-R Pro Mount; avoids using the handset)
Cartes du Ciel for remote positioning and control
ASCOM6 Platform for controlling mount
SharpCap Pro 3.x for imaging
PHD2 for Guiding

Processing Hardware + Software

Remote Desktop Clients:

Windows 10 Pro HP 14 Laptop (Core i5, 8Gb Ram, 256Gb SSD)
Linux (Ubuntu Xenial) Desktop (Core i5, 24Gb Ram, 256Gb NVMe)

Image Processing:

Windows 10 Pro HP 14 Laptop (Core i5, 8Gb Ram, 256Gb SSD)
- PIPP, Registax and AutoStakkert!3 for Lunar and Solar processing
- Astro Pixel Processor (APP) for deep sky processing [for quick
  “in the field” processing]
- Adobe CC for post-processing
Linux (Ubuntu Xenial) Desktop (Core i5, 24Gb Ram, 256Gb NVMe)
- Astro Pixel Processor (APP) for all my deep sky processing
Hackintosh (Core i5, 16Gb Ram, 256Gb SSD)
- Adobe CC for large post-processing

Backup Hardware + Cloud Backup Service

QNAP TS121 with 2Tb HDD
IDrive 1Tb Cloud Backup
Seagate Expansion 4Tb USB3 HDD