निर्मल जांगिड

Most of the work on this site is built around two cameras and one rig. A Sky-Watcher Explorer 200P Newtonian sits on a Sky-Watcher EQ5 Pro SynScan mount, fitted with a TS-Optics coma corrector and a Pegasus Astro Gemini EAF for per-filter autofocus. The 50/90 mm finder doubles as a guide scope with a ToupTek 327C feeding PHD2.

The choice of camera depends on the target. Faint galaxies and HII regions go through the cooled mono ToupTek ATR533M behind a motorised filter wheel — L, R, G, B and 1.25″ Hα / OIII / SII narrowband filters, plus a 2″ Hα + OIII dual-band kept aside for fast OSC sessions. Wide broadband captures and quick session-by-session imaging use the ToupTek 183CA one-shot colour.

Acquisition is split between two laptops: N.I.N.A. on a Windows imaging laptop for most sessions, with a Linux KStars/Ekos stack on a Raspberry Pi 5 at the mount for quieter nights. Stacking and linear post happen in Siril; non-linear stretching and final cosmetic work in GIMP.

The dark site that does most of the heavy lifting is a small village called Klebe at the edge of Plau am See, in the Mecklenburg lake country — quiet enough that the Milky Way is naked-eye obvious and dark enough that the bright Bortle 5 backyard becomes the rough-cut location and Plau am See becomes the finishing site.

Long term, the goal is a backyard roll-off roof observatory — a small 2.4 × 2.4 m structure for the EQ5, the imaging laptop and the Pi 5 to stay permanently set up. Until then, every clear night is still set-up and tear-down.