Astrophotography – Patrick Cosgrove

About

I’ve had a lifelong interest in the night sky. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, I was a member of ASRAS and a very active visual observer – but I never became too involved with Astrophotography.

Then life got busy. I went to grad school, built a house, started a family, and there was not enough time for astronomy. So my activity dropped off – for 30 years!

I always knew I would get back into it once I had time. In my mind, having time meant when I retired.

I retired in 2019, and within 30 days, I had my first telescope rig and started my Journey into Astrophotography. With my background in imaging science and consumer imaging systems, I was able to learn quickly. I also created a website and a YouTube Page to share my images and methods.

Finally, I rejoined ASRAS, and its good to be back!

In short, I have been having a blast with Astrophotography and am still on a long learning curve – which is great! More details can be seen here: cosgrovescosmos.com/about

Equipment

I currently run three telescope platforms that I set up in my driveway each clear night:

A William Optics 132mm FLT f7 Apo refractor, with a 0.8 field reducer and flattener that yields an f/5.5 system. IOptron CEM60 mount on a Tri-Pier. ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro camera with a ZWO 7x36mm Filter Wheel. A Pegasus Astro Focus Cube 2 focus motor and a Pegasus Astro Falcon Camera Rotator round out the telescope assembly. The Guide scope is a Sharpstar 61EDPHII and a ZWO ASI290Mini as the guide camera.
An Astro-Physics 130mm EDT F/8.35 APO Refractor on a IOptron CEM 60 Mount using a Tri-Pier. ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro camera with a ZWO 7x36mm Filter Wheel. A Pegasus Astro Focus Cube 2 focus motor and a Pegasus Astro Falcon Camera Rotator round out the telescope assembly. The Guide scope is Televue TX76 and the a ZWO ASI290Mini as the guide camera.
An Askar FRA400 72mm f/5. 6 Quintuplet Air-Spaced Astrograph mounted on a ZWO AM5 Strain-Wave mount on a carbon fiber tripod. ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro camera with an ZWO 8×1.25″ Filerwheel. ZWO EAF 5v Focus motor and a Pegasus Astro Falcon Camera Rotator round out the telescope assembly. The guide scope is a William Optics 50mm with a ZWO ASI290 Guide camera.

More details can be found here: cosgrovescosmos.com/all-gear-posts