Man alive has my rig gone through some major changes in over a year. This one is the most expensive upgrade by far but also this is where I plan to come to a stop with my Astrophotography setup. I plan on adding some binoculars and maybe just maybe a longer focal length telescope to be able to shoot deeper into the sky for Planets and Galaxies however I am still undecided if I will make that move.
So what in the world have I done? Well, I sold off all my gear except my EAF (Electronic Auto Focus) and the ASI290mm Mini guide camera. Everything else has been sold the RedCat 51 Telescope (you will be missed little red 😢), ZWO ASI183MM-P, ZWO EFW, ZWP OAG, and all my Astronomik 1.25 filters. I even sold two DGT Chess Boards, and my 2018 Mac Mini to help fund my insane…I mean erm hobby. So with all the money that I socked away, I purchased the most amazing Telescope on the planet in my very humble opinion. The very beautiful and made right here in the good ole USA…the Stellarvue SVX080T-25FT Telescope! If you don’t know or haven’t heard of Stellarvue I would recommend watching the following video that Sky and Telescope produced at the Stellarvue headquarters and be amazed like I was!
Vic the owner of Stellarvue and his team were amazing to work with. I placed the original order on June 21st, 2021 with Issac for the initial $500 downpayment. Then on August 20th, it was an absolute treat to talk to Vic when I paid off my order. Two of his sales guys were off for the day and in steps the CEO of Stellarvue to answer the phones…WOW!!!! Vic was really kind and patient and discussed more technical details with me over the phone to make sure my Stelearvue Telescope was exactly the right purchase for me based on all the new gear I was adding! He asked me to come swing by his booth in 2022 when he comes to New Mexico and say hello. I can’t say enough about the customer service and quality of products Stellarvue puts out! When the scope arrived on September 7th, I was simply speechless!!!
To take full advantage of this wonderful telescope I also threw caution to the wind and upgraded my camera to the ZWO ASI2600MM-P (mono) which is the big brother to the old ASI533MC-P (color) I owned which I absolutely loved. It’s a larger APS-C sensor over the 3/4 sensor of the ASI183MM. That meant my filter wheel, off-axis guider, and filters all had to go as they are too small at 1.25 so I stepped into the Astronomik 36mm L-2 and Deep-Sky RGB filters and upgraded to the new SHO MaxFR Emission filters (still on backorder), a ZWO 36mm filter wheel, and the larger ZWO full-frame OAG. None too cheap but like they say “buy once cry once”!
Anyways here is a video I did of installing all the new hardware and configuring the very brand new and much-anticipated #ASIAirPlus
Till next time…