Pretty much…. This is the area where I put together telescope and microscope systems.     I’ve made camera arrays for doing panoramic star trails, meteors and red sprites – there is one in the background, to the right of the AP mount.   I also do microscopy and made a special microscope for snowflakes.  The DR 350 + AP 1100 AE is my first serious foray into deep sky imaging.

If you like this, then you should see our machine shop…  

Nathan

I normally go to an AirBnB or similar rental house in a remote area of southwest.  Where depends on the weather forecast – Nevada (near Death Valley), Utah (near canyonlands), Arizona (near north rim of grand canyon, or the astro places near Chiricahua mountains), or west Texas (south of Marfa near big bend).   I stay for a week or so, around the new moon. 

Nathan

Here is a shot of the shop from a few years ago.    Since then we have gotten a few more machines.    We have a bunch of 3D printers, a laser cutter, an abrasive water jet, several 3 axis and 5 axis CNC mills, a few CNC lathes,  5 axis CNC wire edm, plunge edm, and a 5-axis CNC router, among a lot of other things.

I also enclosed a few astro related things we have made in the shop. 

I am enclosing a shot of a bracket I made for holding 4 of the 40mm f/1.4 Sigma ART lenses, for doing meteor photography.   The array has a field of view a bit smaller than a single 20mm lens, but is vastly more sensitive because point source (including meteors) sensitivity goes like square of absolute aperture, not f-number.  Also a shot of it on location during the day on location with an Rainbow RST-135 mount which was guided.  Since them I started using a 10-micron unguided for this sort of shot, and then finally got serious and bought the AP 1100 AE.  That is the version in the background of the shot of the DR 350 sent earlier.   Each lens has a Pegasus focus motor.

I can send some meteor shots if anybody is interested – alas, not taken with AP mounts – the AP 1100 AE is my first and has yet to be actually be used.

Also enclosed:

• A much simpler bracket for holding 3 cameras with 24mm f/1.4 Samyang lenses, each equipped with a Pegasus focus motor.  I don’t guide this – I use it for start trails.  Enclosed is a shot taken with the rig pointed straight up – it’s a unique way to look at star trails and meteors.
• A very simple plate that holds 2 Canon 200mm f/2 lenses for photographing red sprites – each with a QHY OSC camera.  I also enclosed a red sprite photo – almost looks like a deep sky object but it is MUCH closer of course – they exist above cloud tops on strong thunderstorms.

Nathan