Star Party

Here’s my astrophotography “pedestal” set up late yesterday afternoon for the Phoenix Astronomical Society¹ monthly “star party.”

Unfortunately, clouds rolled in soon thereafter but Jupiter, Mars, and the moon were often seen in the gaps. Fifteen telescopes provided plenty for the sixty-five visitors to see and ask about, and a few through which to take fleeting glimpses.

All in all, a very good evening in spite of no (celestial) pictures.

My equipment:

• Askar-71F (main) telescope (495 mm focal length),
• ToupTek main camera (ATR533C),
• Askar 32 mm guide ‘scope,
• ToupTek guide camera (GPM462M),
• ToupTek autofocuser (AAF),
• Pegasus Astro Pocket PowerBox Advance Gen 2,
• Juwei-17 mount,
• ZWO carbon-fiber tripod,
• GMKtec MiniPC running NINA to control all the electronics,
• GL.iNet wireless router (SSID “kepler”),
• EcoFlow River 2 Pro battery (not visible), and
• MacBook Pro with Apple Silicon 2 (not visible) running “Windows App” (Remote Desktop) to the above MiniPC allowing me to tell NINA what to do.

Images will be post-processed in PixInSight and other graphical tools.