FSQ106 & Moravian: Our Observatory Just Got an Upgrade!

Mikel’s New Rig and Our November Astro Week!

As I mentioned last month in my post about setting up the EQ8 at the observatory, my good friend and fellow astrophotographer, Mikel Martinez, from Spain, who I’ve been sharing the remote observatory with for over a year, decided it was time to install his own setup right alongside mine! So, we shifted our traditional summer astro week to November to make sure we had plenty of time for the installation.

The parts we ordered from our friend Didier at Sky Meca arrived via Chronopost just in the nick of time for us to get everything assembled. And let me tell you, Sky Meca’s new optical divider, the Sky Track 2.5, is truly a beautifully designed piece of kit!

Installing filters in the Moravian wheel:

Setting up the Moravian G3:

Mounting everything on the EQ8, parallel to my setup, using a Losmandy dual plate:

First autoguiding test – looking quite promising!

And, just a few more shots to capture the vibe of our little 2016 astro week: