One mount, one scope, one camera
The rig has been through several shapes since I started, and it has ended up smaller each time. What is on the tripod now is four things that talk to each other and nothing that does not need to be there. A harmonic mount, a modular refractor, a camera with the control computer built into it, and a filter drawer sitting between the last two.
The thing worth saying before any of the parts is that the whole assembly fits in a case I can carry in one hand, and it runs all night on a battery the size of a shoebox. That is not a small achievement. Ten years ago this capability came with a pier and an extension lead.
The mount: Juwei 14
The mount is the part that decides whether a night produces data or a folder of streaks, and it is the part people underspend on. The Juwei 14 is a harmonic drive design, which means the strain wave gearing holds its load without a counterweight for anything this rig will ever carry.
In practice that removes an entire ritual. No counterweight bar, no sliding weights along a shaft in the dark, no rebalancing when the filter drawer changes the moment arm. It goes on the tripod, the scope goes on it, and it is ready.
The optics: Askar V
The Askar V is a modular apochromat, which is the reason it is here rather than a fixed refractor. The optical configuration changes with the module fitted, so one tube covers a range of focal lengths instead of committing to one framing forever.
That flexibility is what a single-scope setup needs. A wide nebula and a small galaxy want very different focal lengths, and owning both as separate telescopes means owning two of everything else as well.
The camera: ASI585MC Air
The ASI585MC Air is the piece that collapsed the rig down to its current size. It is a cooled colour camera, a guide sensor and a full ASIAIR controller in one housing, which means the laptop, the guide scope and its camera, and most of the cabling all left at once.
What is left is one power lead into the camera and a phone in my pocket. Plate solving, focusing, guiding and the imaging plan all run from the handset, and the night can be left to itself once the first frame comes back clean.
The filter drawer
The SVBony filter drawer is the cheapest item on the rig and the one that saves the most time. It sits in the imaging train and lets a filter slide in or out without unthreading anything, which matters because breaking the train means refocusing and reframing.
On a night that starts under moonlight and ends without it, that is the difference between changing approach and giving up on the target.
Power
All of it runs from an EcoFlow River 2 over a single USB-C lead. Measured with everything live, mount tracking and camera cooling, the rig draws around eleven watts. Against 256Wh that is the whole night with room spare, which is the point at which power stops being something you think about.
What I would change
Nothing urgent, which is a good place to be. The obvious limit is the sensor format. The 1/1.2 inch chip gives a narrower field than an APS-C camera on the same optics, so the biggest targets need a mosaic. Moving up means replacing the controller and guide camera too, since they live in the same housing, and that is a real cost rather than an upgrade path.
The other thought is a second, smaller rig running alongside this one, so a wide field and a narrow one can be collected on the same night. That is a different article, and one I will write when it exists rather than while it is still a browser tab.