Let’s talk about gear! This is one of the most common things I get asked about. I get these questions from friends who know nothing about the hobby and get even more detailed questions from amateur astronomers and club members.
Here I will list the gear that I currently use and then describe each item’s function. Before I start, I would like to say that I did not just buy all this gear one night. I’ve been growing my collection over the last 10 years, and it will continue to evolve.
My Gear at Cherry Springs State Park in April 2021.
Equipment
Here is my current equipment as of June 2022. I’ve also listed the equipment I’ve used in the past and I’ve crossed out the equipment that I no longer have or use.
- Mount:
- Telescope:
- Camera:
- Guiding:
- Filters:
- Power:
- Focuser & Rotator:
- Acquisition PC:
- Processing PC:
Software
Hardware is just the beginning. To make all of this work and talk together, we need to use astronomy acquisition and processing software. There are multiple options, and there is no “correct” software. There are what I’ve found to be the best fit for my needs. Most of the software I use is free and open-source, and I’ve found them very useful and easy to use.
The following is running on the mini PC for acquisition.
- Nighttime Imaging ‘N’ Astronomy (N.I.N.A)
- Sequence Generator Pro
- ASTAP
- Astromety.net Local Solver
- ASCOM
- SharpCap
- PHD2 Guiding
- Resilio Sync
- Stellarium
- iOptron Commander
Connectify Hotspot (No longer necessary with the PrimaLuceLab Eagle 4S)
Now that the hard part is done, we now get to the fun but the harder part, post-processing. The following software is what I use on my main machine to process the images.
