Storage for Astronomy Gear

As is the case with almost all the hobbies we tend to accumulate quite a collection of a gear that we need to practice that particular hobby. Astronomy and Astro photography are not any different, especially Astro imaging. There is always something better, read more expensive, that will help us to make a better image. In my case however, it was an absolute must when I switched from Alt-Azimuth mount to German equatorial. You just can’t take a long exposure frames with Alt-Az mount. And, long exposure is an absolute must for faint Deep Space Objects (DSO) like galaxies and nebulas. In a year that I started imaging I have accumulated impressive number of cables, eyepieces and all sorts of adapters that are necessary for this hobby. With that comes a realisation that all that stuff has to be safely stored somewhere. It took me about two months to decide on concept and storage units but I am very happy with my design.

One very practical aspect of this modular design is that I can put any or all of the drawers in the bottom of a trunk of my car and take it on the road to the dark site for some serious astro imaging.

 See for yourself as picture is worth a thousand words.

 

This is tripod storage. The largest tripod is for Celestron Advanced VX Mount, the smaller one is for Nexstar SE mount and heavy duty Manfrotto for wide field Astro photography.

 

This is where I store rest of the gear. From L. to R. on the floor is power tank, heated dew shield for telescope, NexStar mount, optical components storage tower, AVX mount, and storage tower for cables, tools, optics cleaning stuff and camera with flip mirror.

On top is laptop for driving whole thing, big time entertainment and telescope.

 

Again, L. to R, top row: Solar finder with Telrad in dew shield, Baader Solar filter, eyepieces and filters.

2^nd row: Illuminated and regular reticles, 1.4x extender, .68 reducer, Orion Planetary camera, .5 reducer for Orion camera, Celestron SkyQ Link WiFi Adapter. Next is storage for JMI Motofocuser, camera and focuser adapters, other adapters and diagonal.
 

 

The right storage tower holds all the USB and serial cables, tools for setup and adjustments, Hand Controller with cradle, optics cleaning supplies,  AC and DC camera supply (I have built the DC adapter) and Canon Xsi (450D) that I have modified myself for full spectrum imaging and 2” flip mirror is in same drawer.

 

Transit of Venus, June 5, 2012

The transit of Venus happens in pairs eight years apart - but then with more than a century between cycles. During the pass, Venus appears as a small, dark round spot moving across the face of the sun, like a bug on a dinner plate. Here in South-West Ontario we were blessed with clear skies and relatively low humidity during the whole transit.

I was able to follow and photograph this astronomical spectacle from start at 6:04 PM until the Sun disappeared behind neighbor’s roof around 8:30 PM. It was well worth the time.

The equipment I used was Canon Rebel T1i, 75-300mm lens with 1.4X extender and arc welding filter plate in a place of dedicated Sun filter. Considering that the filter plate is a mass production piece made out of polycarbonate (Plexiglas) and not an optical quality glass, the photos are quite sharp. This particular filter has a gold coating that reflects the sunlight and keeps the filter cool. Simple setup that did what I wanted.

If you look very carefully you will see 5 Sun spots in 2 groups: at center left are 3 spots on top of each other and second group in center right has 2 spots.