I have three separate imaging rigs and can operate any two at the same time when at home. They give me a choice of 3 Field of Views (0.5, 2.2 or 3.5 degrees). The 3.5 degree set-up rig is much lighter than the others and can also be used as a portable rig.
Rig 1 – 0.5 degrees FOV : Celestron 8” SCT with Antares 6.3 focal reducer and Celestron auto-focuser on Celestron Advanced VX mount and standard tripod. Operated as USB to PC using CPWI. Imaging is a ZWO ASI585 Pro camera with ZWO 1.25″ mini electronic filter wheel (Altair Tri-band and Skytech LPRO filters). Guiding is Svbony SV165 30mm guidescope and ZWO ASI120 mini camera.
Rig 2 – 2.2 degrees FOV: William Optice ZenithStar 73 refractor with 0.8 focal reducer and ZWO EAF on Skywatcher EQ5 mount and tripod. Operated with an EQDirect connection to PC using EQMOD. Imaging is Altair 183 C Hypercam camera with ZWO 1.25” mini electronic filter wheel (Altair Tri-band and Optolong L-Pro filters). Guiding is Svbony SV165 30mm guidescope and Svbony SV905 camera. USB connections made through Pegasus USB Hub
Rig 3 – 3.5 degrees FOV: RVO Horizon 60ED with 1.0 Flatener and ZWO EAF on Explore Scientific iEXOS-100 PMC-Eight equatorial mount and tripod. This is my most portable rig. Operated with a direct connetion to PC using ASCOM Device Hub. Imaging is a Canon EOS 1300D astro modified camera with either L-ENhance or Skytech CLS filters. Guiding is Svbony SV165 30mm guidescope and Svbony SV905 camera. USB connections made through Tp-link 7 port powered hub.
Dew heater – RVO 12v 30cm, 40cm and 80cm depending on telescope used
Power – I am now imaging next to the garden studio, which has mains power. Most time I am therefore using a mains to 12v transformer (I have 2) and have a cable set up that allows me to be as far as 10 metres from the mains power outlet. I also have a 12v VARTA 75ah Leisure Battery and Tracer 22ah Li-Po as alternatives when set up away from the garden studio,
Cotrol – 2 x Beelink Mini S PC’s at telescope connected to home desktop PC or IPad using Remote Desktop and home wif to control and operate the telescope operation. If home wifi not available I have Solwise Router (very small) connected by LAN to Beelink Mini S to create a wifi access point so that I can use the iPad to control and operate a single telescope operation exactly as if at home.
Sotware for control and operation – Mount control is Celestron PWI for Rig 1, EQMOD for Rig 2 and ASCOM Devices Hub for Rig 3. PHD2 is used for guiding control. NINA is used for overall control for deep sky images in selecting, framing, filter selection, focusing, slewing, plate-soving, guiding and imaging. Sharpcap would be used for planetary images. EAA imaging is done using the PixInsight Tools Plug-in within NINA, which calibrates, aligns and stacks an image as it is completed using NINA imaging.
Software for deep sky image processing – PixInsight WBPP for stacking. All further processing done using PixInsight, including using BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator and StarXTerminator plugins.
Software for planetary image processing – AstroSurface for alignment, stacking and correction with final prcessing using Affinity Photo. For images viewed on IOS devices, there may by further adjustment using iPad photo editing
Field of View’s for my imaging shown below.
Night Sky over Middleton 