I have been interested in photography for 35 years, and about five years ago, I wandered into a local Costco, and saw a telescope displayed. I thought I can take pictures using it, especially the planets. I got it that following Christmas. Only to learn the problems with 0.965" eyepieces, and trying to use reflectors for imaging, at prime focus, with their limited focus range, and a shaky mount. I since then upgraded my equipment, the main pieces of my equipment are:
Hardware:
C8 SCT, Televue TV76, Celestron CGE Mount, JMI CGE Wheeley Bars, An SBIG ST8XE, with a CFW10 with Astrodon LRGB, H-Alpha, OIII and SII filters, Lumicon H-Beta filter. Van Slyke Atlas Zerotator and Van Slyke Microguide Focuser. The focuser is controlled by Robofocus. Canon Modded EOS 300D. Dell Inspiron Laptop and Gateway Desktop
Software:
Maxim DL, Adobe Photoshop (which I had before), FocusMax, Robofocus Control Software, ASCOM Drivers.
In addition, I am a staff member at the Custer Observatory, Long Island's only public Observatory, and there I use a Celestron CGE-1400. Otherwise, I do imaging from my driveway in East Northport, New York, so my observatory is called the E.N.D. (East Northport Driveway) Observatory.
Tw0 Recent Images
I first wheel the setup out, then I wheel out the computer setup. Initially all the cables are attached to the tripod via computer cable clamps. Then I hook everything up. When finished up, I disconnect the cables, clamp them to the tripod, and wheel everything back inside. The wheels and clamps make things alot easier for me. Before that, I had to tear down, put away, and set everything up from the beginning when I started again. My average set-up time is about 20 minutes, and my average tear-down time is about 15 minutes.
Customized Mods:
A Pulley System to aid in the autoguiding of the CGE
A Robofocus Based Focuser for my Telephoto/Zoom Lens
Here are two images showing my daylight imaging setup, which has in addition, a Coronado PST and Solar Filters for the other scopes:
I mainly image from two places: East Northport, New York and Southold, New York. In addition I remotely image from New Mexico Skies, Australia and Israel via Global-Rent-A-Scope (GRAS) and The Remote Astronomical Society (RAS) and I travel about twice a year to Cherry Springs State Park in Pennsylvania.