17/07/2026
Hi all, has been a while since imaging or posing, but finally, an opportunity of a clear night for my relatively new mini mobile telescope imaging rigs' first light in the Meander Valley, Tasmania!
At -2°C in a Bortle 2.5–3 zone, this was my first real wintry imaging session. True Bortle 1 skies are just a short drive away, but I'm still adjusting to the night environment. I'll brave the colder spots soon enough.
For the past 10 years, I've been spoiled by the luxuries of a Ballina NSW backyard observatory with all the mod-cons—and temperatures averaging a comfortable 10°C to 22°C. Since downsizing to a caravan, I've had to rethink and miniaturise my imaging rig.
While being used to the "set and forget" automation of a permanent observatory, I am incredibly grateful for how far portable tech, optics, and mobile computing have come, super impressed.
The Downsized & Improved Gear:
Askar SQA70 apochromatic quintuplet flat-field astrograph. A short, tiny, wide-field scope that is incredibly clear and fast. I’ve never owned a scope so small; the optics are superb, and I have never had some piece of gear that I didn't have to tinker with for hours before use. Highly impressed.
Sky-Watcher Wave 100i strain wave mount. Silent, small and virtually weightless compared to my old, hefty mounts. Finally, no counterweights to deal with since the harmonic drive handles up to 10kg without them & EQorAltAz.
The StellarVita controller microcomputer. Setup is super fast with a fully self-contained astro-controlling environment, instead of dealing with numerous bits of software talking (sometimes arguing) to work together. Runs flawlessly over Wi-Fi.
Using my old QHY268M imager and 3nm Narrowband filters, I decided to test the rig on something I know well, an old favourite: NGC 3372, the Carina Nebula.
Being unfamiliar with this scope, exposure times were an arbitrary mix of 300-second and 600-second subs, didn't think to get some short exps for details. & I didn’t really do a great job of framing,
Combined with the sudden winter fogs out here, I lost about 2 hours of data that PixInsight rejected. I’ll just add more data on the next clear night, but I’m pretty happy with this first result after just 1.45 hours (105 mins) on each filter.
Coming from a PC using NINA, PHD2, etc., switching systems took some getting used to. But I am pretty impressed with its performance and how quickly a travel rig can go from unpacking to target acquisition and all monitored from the comfort of an iPad in bed.
There was something romantic about the early days of sitting outside all night long nursing a scope, but I’m kinda over that these days.
Have to work on exposure times and possibly a better fogless location, and will need ot work on my post processing chops.
Processed mainly in Pixinsight, some light & colour in PS.
Total acquisition of 3hrs15mins, 105 minutes each on Ha, SII, and OIII filters, guided via a Testar 120mm scope and a ZWO 120mm guidecam.
I think I might be happy using short focal lengths, chasing wider fields for some time.
