Power, Control, and Dew, oh my!
The last chunk of stuff from the initial bullet list (see “Pulled the trigger…”) I want to talk about together.
I needed a way to control all of this stuff
I needed a way to power all of this stuff
And definitely needed a way to prevent dew from wreaking havoc on everything
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The Filter Wheel: Atik EFW3 and the case of the missing Astrodons
As far as the filter wheel is concerned, the frontrunner was actually one by FLI (I read several reports of folks having trouble with Atik’s EFW2). After talking with Larry at OPT I learned that Atik released a new filter wheel, specifically for the the 16200, the EFW3. That made the choice easy. I was quite glad that he mentioned it, since it wasn’t yet on OPT’s website. It’s really good to have someone help you with this process!
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The Cameras: Atik 16200 Mono & ZWO ASI290 Mini Mono
After selecting the telescope other things started clicking into place. I had a telescope with a huge image circle, I needed to use it. When it came to selecting the camera there really weren’t many choices– I started with a pretty short list. Initially I was looking at at the QSIs - in particular, the QSI 683wsg-8, an 8.3 megapixel (3326 x 2507) KAF-8300 sensor with 5.4 micrometer pixels, also sporting a built-in, 8-position filter wheel for 1.25-inch filters. Unfortunately, a death in the family put QSIs in limbo for quite some time. I believe that Atik as helped ramp back up operations, but I haven’t looked into availability.
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The Telescope: Takahashi FSQ-106EDX4
This post goes over my my thoughts when selecting the telescope for my imaging rig.
Trying to follow the advice of the masses, my requirements for the telescope were:
Small(ish) refractor, preferably apochromatic, either with a flat field, or a flattener available. Bonus points if the system allows threaded (vs compression) connections in the imaging train.
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Pulled the trigger on the dream rig
That brings us to today.
Like many aspiring astrophotographers, I had my dream setup planned out. Like many plans, it was somewhat “fluid”.
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