Equipment

Stuff I own now...

• Takahashi EM-400 mount (love it!).
• Takahashi EM-200 mount (love it as well! This one's in Spain, so I can also do some astrophotography when I travel there).
• Takahashi FSQ-106 EDX refractor (a perfect match for the STL11k CCD).
• Vixen VC200L (my last acquisition in mid 2010, it hasn't seen its 1st light yet).
• 2 Orion ShortTubes 80mm for guiding - one here in the US and one in Spain (why travel with a guidescope when you can just have one "there"?)
• SBIG STL-11000 Monochrome CCD camera with 1st gen Astrodon LRGB + Ha filters.
• Canon EOS 40D IR/UV filter - mainly for panoramas and timelapses.
• StarShoot AutoGuider guiding CCD (ok I didn't go broke wen buying this one but it does what I need!).

I also have at home a loaned 8" dobsonian scope I occasionally use to do visual observing, as well as a load of accessories such as the reducer and the extender for the FSQ, a FlipFlat (to generate flat field images), a TAKometer (to control camera angle from the computer), a TeleVue Powermate x4 I barely use, a RoboFocus focuser, a Moonlite electronic focuser also sitting on a shelf, a whole bunch of modest eyepieces, dozens of adapters of all sizes and colors (well, they're almost all black :-), etc.

If I were to include EVERYTHING I take with me to an imaging session I'd also have to include my EEE ASUS PC 900 (8.9") laptop (a laptop that runs off 12v and has no hard drive - it uses a solid state drive - ideal for setting up remotely and running off deep cycle 12v batteries for like forever, and that doesn't require any power inverter/converter since it can connect directly to a typical deep cycle 12v battery), three deep-cycle marine batteries (to power up laptop, mount, cameras, robofocus, etc), two battery packs (I use them only in case of emergency or for other stuff non-astro related while I'm out on a hilltop or camping), portable chair/table, a pair of binoculars, a green laser pointer that I practically never use, and some other "utility" gear as I call it. And my SUV of course (2006 Acura MDX that reached 100,000 miles on April 2011) - no way I could load all this stuff in a sedan!

Here's a photo of the FSQ and the STL right before an imaging session at Dinosaur Point in 2009.

And here's a photo of the same setup but this time in action, at Henry Coe State Park, also in 2009. The image has been stretched, obviously there's not that much light illuminating the scope, they're in fact very dim leds :-)

Stuff I've owned in the past

• Orion Sirius EQ-G mount
• Orion 80mm ED refractor
• Canon 400D stock camera

The only images I took with this setup are the ones I took in December 2007.

Then in January I beefed up my astro gear:

• Takahashi EM-400 mount
• Televue NP101-is refractor
• Celestron C11 reflector
• Canon 400D stock camera

Here's an image of that setup (without the camera) in my backyard:

But guiding with the C11 when I was imaging with the NP101 was a "bit" hard, so I soon got a small cheap guiding scope and a guiding CCD camera:

At that time I had got rid of the Canon 400D and after trying a 450D for a while, I settled on a modified Canon 40D from Hutech. At that time I also got my first CCD camera, a SBIG ST2000XCM, that I didn't use much and soon sold on Astromart (in short I didn't like a color CCD camera, and decided to sell it and wait for a better monochrome CCD in the future.

The C11 proved to be too much of a scope for imaging (for me at least), so I decided to settle imaging with the NP101-is for a while. However, soon enough I felt the need to take images with a larger focal length (that is, being able to image smaller objects) and in September'08 I bought a very nice C9.25 with Hutech's focuser lock. The C9.25 is similar to the C11 but a bit less aperture and a little smaller focal length, but what really made the difference (for good) was the focuser lock and JMI focuser.

Then on December 2008 I took a big leap.

First, I sold my amazing NP101-is, and with that money plus a bit more, bought a new Takahashi FSQ-106 EDX.

And then, almost at the very same time, I purchased a CCD camera, the SBIG STL 11000.

Here's a photo of the C9.25 (for photos of the FSQ see above) with the STL, at work, at home - all surrounded by street lights!

On March 2010 I decided to sell my good old C9.25. Then my good friend Drew Sullivan told me he was going to put his VC200L for sale and I ended up buying it from him. At the time of writing this I haven't even taken the VC200L for a first light yet.