Equipment

The Sony a7II is my main imaging camera and has taken all of my astrophotography photos to date.

The ASI533MC Pro is my first dedicated astronomy camera. With the help of a powerful cooling unit, this camera provides me with noise free images and the ability to use filters in the future.

The Z61 Telescope has been the main imaging lens that I have used since I got it in August. Prior to this, I used a stock Sony 300mm lens.

This fast lens is a new addition that I hope to use for both deep sky photography, landscapes, and Milky Way mosaics

Long exposure images would not be possible without the help of the Star Adventurer GTI. This mount holds the main imaging train and moves with the night sky, allowing me to take up to 2 minute long exposures with pinpoint stars.

The ASIair Plus is like the brain of the imaging setup. This mini computer controls the camera, mount, and guiding equipment, allowing me to automate the imaging process. It is a relatively new addition to my setup that I received in late October, 2023.

The ASI120mm camera acts as a guiding camera that picks a star and makes sure that star stays in the same spot, making slight adjustments to the mount.

The 30mm f/4 serves as the scope for the ASI120mm guide camera. It sits on top of the main scope.

This little band is used to keep the telescope hot, which prevents due from forming on the glass and ruining any pictures.

The Anker 521 powers the entire system. On a full charge it can power the camera, ASIair, mount, dew heater, and my phone for over 12 hours.

Although not originally purchased for Astrophotography, my iPad has proved useful as it can control the ASIair Plus remotely via an app and is also useful when taking flat frames.

This fast, manual ultrawide lens is used to capture as much of a scene as possible while also capturing as much light as possible.

The Sony a7II is my main imaging camera and has taken all of my astrophotography photos to date.

This tripod, originally used in my deep sky images, allows me to stabalize my camera for short 15 second exposures.

This fast lens is a new addition that I hope to use for both deep sky photography, landscapes, and Milky Way mosaics

Stellarium is an amazing planning software to visualize locations, frame targets, and see what the sky will look like on certain dates and times with accurate light pollution adjustments.

Astrospheric is my go to weather app. It has extensive cloud forecasts from up to 4 models, seeing/transparency information, and KP index readings. 

This weather app is my secondary source for the weather. Although less informative, it provides a great second opinion for what the skies are like at certain locations.

This is one of the most important pieces of software used, as it takes the 200 or so images I capture at 30 seconds each and combines them into one 6,000 second image to then be stretched and post processed.

Siril is a free astrophotography processing software that I use when postprocessing my images. It has useful tools like noise reduction, histogram stretching, and light pollution reducer.

Astro Pixel Processor is another piece of software with useful tools like star reducer, light pollution reducer, and autostretching that help with the editing process.

Sequator is a stacking software I use for landscape photos like my Milky Way images. It has useful tools for calibrating and aligning the images.

StarNet is a software that removes all stars from an image so just dust and gasses can be edited and enhanced. This helps create a balanced image in the end without stars overpowering.

Adobe Photoshop is my one stop shop for all processing. I can use it to edit landscape images, stretch deep sky images, or combine starless layers with the starry image. 

Adobe Lightroom is used to add the finishing touches to images before I consider them finished and ready to be shared.