(entries are sorted by the date last changed or published)
This page goes through the assembly steps for this mounting kit. You will need the telescope itself, EAF with its mounting screws, ASIAIR and the parts of the kit. All versions of ASIAIR starting with Pro can be used with the kit. This page uses the Pro version as an...
Some time ago I started to consider to get a new telescope to cover the focal lengths of around 420mm which would be basically in the middle of 550mm and 350mm of the Sky Watcher Esprit 100ED without and with the Starizona APEX-ED L reducer. While looking around, I...
This the the fist OTA with which I designed the series of the mounting kits placed on the focuser body and sitting in the holes of the guide scope clamps. Mounting of this kit takes 15-20 minutes in the first time. You will need 2.5mm and 3mm hex screw drivers. The...
I once got the Askar FMA180 Pro to cover the 180mm focal length. I was very impressed by its quality and decided to keep it and to create an mounting kit for ZWO ASIAIR and an adaptation for ZWO EAF. This kit is available in the shop. This page describes how to...
This page goes through the assembly steps for this mounting kit. We want to get compact and tidy gear setup. You will need three hex allein keys, ZWO ASIAIR (Mini is used here), a EAF with its mounting screws. As first, we remove the clamp and the extra screws from...
The kit allows flexible mounting of the ZWO ASIAIR (Pro / Plus / Mini), a belt drive with ZWO EAF and a raster plate for mounting of a guide scope or other accesories. The assembly of the kit takes around 15-20 min. The picture below shows the final state. This page...
When I started with the idea to combine the battery with the counterweight, I thought, it will be a one-shot project. Well, it gradually became more a learning and a research project. Now, there are four different models made, whereas I do not count the first one...
RC8 for the range from 1625mm at f/8 to 1050mm at f/5.2 It happened to me to meet two guys who were photographing on the same place as I once did. They both were using RC8 (8" Ritchey-Chrétien, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritchey–Chrétien_telescope) telescopes....
I once was astrophotographing with two other guys who used monochrome cameras. The cameras had active cooling and were attached to motor-driven filter wheels. At this time I already heard of such cameras but still did not consider them as an upgrade, since the...
Testing Routers as WiFi Extenders with ZWO AISAIR Pro Some while ago there were a few cloudy nights in my place again, and I took some time to tinker again. Like some other users, I also suffered from a weak WiFi performance of ASIAIR Pro and over time collected a few...
The kits are shipped disassembled: Assembling of the kit is simple and can be done in 15-20 minutes. The assembling of the version for the saddle handle bar for the RedCat 71 has an addtional step where the main frame hast to be pushed under the bar, around the focing...
ZWO ASIAIR Mounting Kit and Belt Drive for EAF on William Optics RedCat 51 and Red Cat 71 When I started to design an adaptation from my “On-OTA” mounting kit for William Optics RedCat 51 and RedCat 71, I observed that a much simpler mounting would be possible if it...
This page provides instructions on how to assemble the kit. It also provides various hints for its use. Overview of the Parts Most parts of the kit are shipped being not assembled. Only the EAF block is pre-assembled. The outstanding point of the kit is that it can...
More information about the kit is available here. The kit is available in the Photastro shop.
Some while ago I designed a mounting kit supporting various lenses. It is available in my shop and I kept using it on my portable setup. While using it, I came up with an idea of how to make it more compact, avoid using 3rd party mounting elements but still keep it...
Using equatorial mounts requires using counterweights to achieve a balanced distribution the weight regardless of the rotation of the mount and the sizes of the payload. Counterweights are usually cylindrical and are placed on a bar along the RA axis. Their weight...
Made in Germany. Shipped from Germany About Photastro Photastro is a new shop on Internet. It has been started in the Fall 2021 as a small business ran by one person in the spare time aside. The famous recent pandemic has changed my sabbatical plans in the year 2020,...
La Palma - the island of volcanoes, dark night skies and tropical green tales. Fuerteventura - the most flat island of Canary Islands and so the driest one. Like on all other Canary islands, there are a lot of wind from the Passat trade winds stream on Fuerteventura,...
Made in Germany - Shipped from GermanyFeatured:
The page shares my experience in starting with astrophotography. If you are interested in this, this page might help you to start on the right end, save some time and potentially money too.
How comes? This is a set of mounting components for astrophotography rigs using lenses and telescopes with a focus ring. It provides a compact and flexible mounting of most important elements of the rig and allows using a range of lenses and telescopes in the same...
A Photographer Perspective As a photographer you probably own some interchangeable lenses. Depending on the focal length and the optical quality of that lenses, they most probably can be used for astrophotography with a good results. In astrophotography, optical...
Compensation of the Earth Rotation Star Trackers Start Trackers have only one axis. They provide a motorized system rotating a camera holder on this axis in the opposite direction to the rotation of the Earth. In order to put this axis in the right direction, an...
If Astronomy is not your hobby, you do not need to dive in all details of this science for astrophotography. Still, a basic knowledge and understanding is almost mandatory. Astronomy is not my hobby, and I collected a list of highlights which I found important to know...
Many things you know from the daylight photography are different now! Seasonality Unlike the regular photography, the selection of your astrophotography objects is strictly driven by time and your location. On top, it is timed by the moon phases. There are some...
When you start as a beginner, steps of alignment appear pretty unusual and unclear. There is a polar alignment to align the RA axis of your start tracker or equatorial mount with the rotation axis of the Earth. If you use an equatorial mount, in most cases you need to...
Why and When a Computer-Based Control is Needed in Field When using a star tracker, you only need to do a polar alignment and setup a multi-exposure sequence to start shooting. This can be done either directly in the camera, with an intervalometer or in the app...
Making pictures of the sky objects is driven by annual seasons as objects move, or better, the Earth travels around the Sun. Your view of the sky is defined by your location. The majorty of "a must" astrophotography objects are located in the belt of Milky Way. The...
Which Path to Go and Why I own the Star-Watcher Adventurer Mini since 2017. Again and again, I thought of upgrading it, and then decided to keep it while creating a Go-To setup. In parallel, I wanted to enhance the Star-Watcher Adventurer Mini with an automated...
In regular photography, many people rely on auto-focus in most cases. The auto-focus as it is known available in DSRL and mirrorless cameras does not work in for astrophotography. Bahtinov masks have been invented in 2005 and are very popular today. I found out that...
Are you tired of shaking preview picture when you adjust the focus? Did you notice how sensitive the adjustments are and how hard it is to hit the right position? You heard of motorized focusers and were disappointed that all of them are made to work with telescope...
I spent some time to filter and to sort tons of various apps, web sites and desktop software for astrophotography. In my opinion, only the choice of messaging apps is larger 😉 Ratings are always subjective and real unbiased and good reviews take a long time. This...
This is my biased, but categorized, but not "prioritized" list of interesting information sources about astrophotography. Well, the only part which is "prioritized" are books in the first section. Books I learned for myself that astrophotography is one of those...
Cameras and Lenses Currently, I use the following gear most of the time: Canon EOS 100D camera, astro-modified, and sold, replaced by: Canon EOS 800D camera, astro-modified, as a main camera ZWO ASI294MM Pro, ZWO 8x EFW, Baader LRGB and CMOS-optimised HSO filters,...
The benefit of a custom landscape is that you can directly see which parts of the sky are obscured by trees, houses, hills at a given time and date on your favorite location. This is a big time saver in planning your day. There are quite some guides on the Internet on...
A direct connection via an EQDIRECT cable from a computer to the mount Why The EQMOD project implements a ASCOM compatible driver for the Sky-Watcher and Orion (same hardware and software) mounts which can communicate directly with the mount. It also provides various...
It will be interesting to watch the development of the regular photography gear over time. In a saturated photography market, many established photography brands are searching for attractive niche segments. Astrophotography seems to be one. The evolution of cameras in...