The Quarky Engineer

While I was out on my camping trip I did a little astrophotography. Mostly with just my Sony Alpha A7IV camera and a zoom lens, but one shot with the Alpha on my Celestron C8. The Sony worked well once I got the config figured out. Next time out I’ll do a lot more exposures, but this was a good test before the clouds rolled in. Most of these were only 10-20 stacked 20-30s sets, but I did do darks, flats, and bias. A few comments on each picture.

It was fun to have a little time under the great skies of the eastern Oregon forest.. so little light pollution.. and you can almost read something with just the glow of the milky way.

I finally had a chance to do some remote camping with my setup. I did three days in the Ochoco National Forest at a somewhat remote location. I didn’t see a single person or hear any signs of life with the exception of the wildlife, so it was a nice get-away.

I was able to do a bit of astrophotography under the very dark night sky, and I was able to test all of my power management systems.

I had my Starlink with me, as there is no cell coverage of any kind here. I powered the Starlink with my Ecoflow battery pack (3.6kWh) plus a solar panel, and the panel was able to generate enough power to provide 24 hours of Starlink usage.

I also had a generator, which was nice to use during the 100+ degree peak temps to run the AC.

Everything else in the boondocking setup worked great. Plenty of water, great cooking, sleeping, etc. It is a good setup for doing remote work with no support services needed.