MLAstro

17/04/2026

MLAstro SAL-33 production update:

1. Batch 4 assembly is now nearly complete, and we are currently working on the Zero-Shift base. We had originally hoped to ship the first units tomorrow, but both I and our lead engineer will be out of the country on a business trip until April 24. I am not comfortable shipping the first units without one of us here to do the final checks and personally sign off on them, so the first Batch 4 shipments will most likely be postponed until after April 24.

Please also note that this will overlap with the long holiday period in Vietnam for Reunification Day and Labour Day, so tracking numbers may appear later than usual. Normally, tracking becomes active about two days after the courier receives the package, but delays are possible during the holiday period. Thank you for your patience.

2. Preliminary assembly for Batch 5 has already begun. We will continue assembly through mid May, with QC and shipping expected around mid to late May.

3. Production is moving quickly, and preliminary assembly for Batch 6 is expected to begin in mid to late May.

4. Batch 7 preorders will open next week. I have managed to keep pricing unchanged despite sharply rising costs, and we are doing our very best to hold the line. Cheer for us, please.

16/04/2026

Reviews of the SAL-33 from Batch 3 are coming in, and I am very pleased to see that they have been overwhelmingly positive. Without the hiccups we ran into with Batch 2, Batch 3 has been far less stressful and significantly kinder to what little hair I have left.

Do take the RMS figures reported by ASIAir with a grain of salt. I have a suspicion that ASIAir may calculate RMS in a way that makes the numbers appear a bit lower than they truly are. Even so, it is still very clear that the SAL-33 is performing exceptionally well for our customers, and I could not be happier with how it is turning out.

15/04/2026

The webstore has been upgraded. More content will be added over the next few days.

15/04/2026

Hi guys, quick update: our webstore is currently being updated. It is expected to be back online at 00:00 GMT on 16 April 2026. We’ll post another update here as soon as it is live again.

14/04/2026

For within the telescope mounts was bound the strength and the will to govern over every payload. But they were all of them deceived, for another mount was made.

In the land of Vietnam, in the blistering fires of an unforgiving tropical afternoon, the dark lords of the mancave forged in secret a master mount to surpass all others. And into this mount they poured all their sleep deprivation, mechanical obsession, hairloss, and absolute refusal to accept that “good enough” is ever good enough. Upon it was written the inscription:

One mount to rule them all,
One mount to carry them,
One mount to slew them all,
and in the darkness guide them.

Unlike the One Ring, this one does not corrupt your soul. It merely asks for your wallet, ruins your sleep schedule, and convinces you that putting a ridiculously heavy setup on it is not only reasonable, but destiny...

14/04/2026

At a time when anti science rhetoric is growing louder and more corrosive, nonprofit like Charlie Bates Solar Astronomy Project/Sunlit Earth are not merely valuable, they are indispensable. They embody the very ideals MLAstro seeks to uphold, and the same convictions my late mother, for whom this foundation is named, held so dearly. This is not just charity. It is a principled commitment to reason, curiosity, education, and human progress.

Donation link down in the comment.

Diễm Hương Foundation and MLAstro are proud to stand behind the Bates Solar Astronomy Project. We have been a returning donor to this remarkable initiative, which provides direct, tangible support in bringing the wonder of astronomy and science to communities across 27 countries.

At a time when anti science rhetoric is growing louder and more corrosive, organizations like CBSAP are not merely valuable, they are indispensable. They embody the very ideals MLAstro seeks to uphold, and the same convictions my late mother, for whom this foundation is named, held so dearly. This is not just charity. It is a principled commitment to reason, curiosity, education, and human progress.

Science is one of the few things that allows us to confront reality with honesty, to understand the universe with humility, and to treat one another with greater wisdom and compassion. Through reason and evidence, we do not merely explain the world around us. We learn how to live in it together.

If you have a little to spare, I strongly encourage you to support credible science focused nonprofits as well. The future will not be safeguarded by ignorance, superstition, or cynicism. It will be secured by those willing to invest in knowledge, critical thought, and the next generation.

13/04/2026

Oh, what’s that? Nothing much, just the MLAstro Robotic PA kit casually bringing the SAL-66 with a fully loaded C14 Edge HD into perfect polar alignment through KStars’ integrated PA routine. Boom. Perfect PA without you having to lift a finger or even be there.

This is what the future looks like, folks.

It also means I can finally drive up to the remote observatory whenever I have time, do maintenance on the gears, install new ones, then drive back home without having to wait for darkness or clear skies, knowing I can do the polar alignment later from the comfort of my couch.

I made it home safely after the very long drive and will be sharing more material from our SAL-66 tests in the coming days. I am completely exhausted, but very satisfied to have had a bit of time to myself under pristinely clear skies and more stars than I could ask for, doing what I love. But please do not tell my wife I enjoyed it. I told her I was miserable so she would let me go on the C14.

Expect raw guiding logs, gearbox PE analysis, and more test data coming this week.

One hundred percent transparency, as promised.

12/04/2026

MLAstro production update:
1. The batch 4 finished mount head assembly, now is the ZeroShift Alt Az base assembling and QC late next week. First units of B4 probably will ship out early the week after next week.
2. Batch 5 machining has concluded. The part will head to anodizer this week.
3. Batch 6 production is now in full speed. Early shipping in July seems likely.

11/04/2026

This is the question everyone has been asking since the MLAstro SAL-66 first came into existence: how does it handle a Celestron C14 Edge HD for long exposure imaging?

Well, this video is the answer.

Please forgive the lazy edit. After a full week of testing, working, and driving, I am simply too tired to make it prettier. What I can promise, however, is that the footage is raw, unedited, and completely free of sugar coating.

As always, round stars are subjective. What looks perfectly round to one person may look like a complete disaster to another. Still, I hope this video gives you the answer you have been looking for.

What you see is what you get. A commercial SAL-66 should deliver similar performance, assuming you have seeing conditions and a calm night comparable to what I had during that session.

So how do you think the SAL-66 is doing with that C14? Let me know what you think in the comments.

10/04/2026

Now this is what I call a proper mount.

The MLAstro SAL-66 is carrying a fully loaded Celestron C14 EdgeHD, around 27 kg of imaging gear, without a single counterweight, and it feels absolutely rock solid. Goto accuracy is spot on as well.

Just think about that for a second. A mount head in the 10 to 11 kg class that can haul a C14 to the field with no counterweight and still remain solid. That means a truly portable 14 inch SCT setup is no longer some absurd fantasy. For planetary imaging, visual use, and similar applications, the implications are huge.

And the best part is that it does not cost a ridiculous amount of money to get this level of performance. I genuinely think this is going to change the game for a lot of people.

I also tested the C14 Edge HD on the SAL-66 and recorded video of the guiding performance. I am editing it now and will post it here tomorrow.

How is it doing?

You will have to come back tomorrow for that one LOL.

10/04/2026

Hell yeah, the full robotic observatory is on the way, baby. And yes, you will have to forgive the cable management. I was a little too busy fending off the dang tropical mosquitoes.

This is our live demonstration of the MLAstro Robotic Polar Alignment kit, or MLAstro RPA, running on the MLAstro SAL-66. This demo is meant to give you a feel for how the RPA works when you are adjusting polar alignment manually on systems that do not support digital PA routines, such as ASIAir or StellaVita.

In those cases, you still do the alignment manually, but the RPA becomes your remote fingers. It lets you operate the adjustment k***s from a distance, whether that means doing it remotely from several thousand kilometers away, hiding from the mosquitoes, or avoiding the kind of outdoor cold that makes you question every life decision that led to astrophotography. The integrated web interface can connect directly to your observatory network or create its own Wi Fi hotspot in the field. You simply connect to it and control the RPA from the interface.

For systems that do support proper polar alignment routines, such as KStars or NINA, the RPA will integrate natively with the PA workflow. That means true hands free polar alignment with a single click, which I suspect will soon be legally classified as cheating in this hobby. Ah yes, how I will miss the glorious old days of crouching behind the straight through polar scope of a Sky Watcher Star Adventurer and slowly injuring my back, my legs, my neck, and possibly my dignity. I already sacrificed two pairs of shorts to that ritual. They were shredded under the sheer pressure. Truly a noble era.

There are still a few things we need to refine, such as backlash measurement and compensation, as well as improving the linearity of the movement. But as you can already see, the MLAstro RPA is already working exactly as intended.

And yes, we also confirmed that the mechanical design of the RPA on the SAL-66 works flawlessly under a 40 kg load, and that is not the limit.

As for pricing, the RPA is turning out to be more expensive than we originally hoped, mostly because of the high quality components and the level of precision required to make it work properly under such a serious load. The wars of Lord Farquaad have, of course, done absolutely nothing to help. Still, we will do everything we can to keep it from breaking the bank and stay true to MLAstro’s mission of making astrophotography more affordable. You have my word on that, and people who know me know I am a man of my word.

More updates coming in the next few days.

08/04/2026

The MLAstro SAL-66 prototype first light has been extremely promising. We mounted a dual rig totaling 36 kg on it without any counterweight, and it performed flawlessly, guiding reliably at under 0.5 arcseconds RMS. This is exactly the level of performance we were aiming for when we designed the mount.

The Robotic PA system still needs some refinement, but it is already working. We were able to achieve hands free polar alignment, and it honestly felt like magic.

Next up, we are going to put a C14 EdgeHD on it and see how far it can go. Stay tuned for more updates.