A New “Budget” Astrophotography Rig for 2024

Recently, we’ve seen a LOT of new gear hit the market, and I’ve been impressed. Just recently, ZWO released a new cooled astronomy camera for just $600 USD. SVBony, a company I first became aware of from their “junk” scopes on amazon, has since vastly improved their product line up, and is now producing an 80mm astrophotography grade telescopes for as little as $399*, and the Skywatcher Evolux 62 is currently $329*! This ASIair mini $199, which effectively replaces the computer, and allows for live stacking (leaving you with just 1 file at the end of the night to work with, instead of hundreds). If we put these all together, we can, in theory, create an amazing portable astrophotography rig, one that will rival these “SMART” telescopes like the Seestar and Origin, for years to come. *Requires field flattener (extra).

So, if I were putting together the lowest cost, yet still high quality, astrophotography rig in 2024, here’s what I would do:

[Yes, these are affiliate links, but I the costs should be the same everywhere, and All-Star Telescope offers amazing personalized support, thanks Nicholas!]

Mount and Tripod $740: Most of you know that I use a modified AZ-GTi. However, you don’t need to do this anymore, since the Star Adventurer GTi came along. This may be the highest cost item in the rig, but I believe it’s the best mount on the market today:

https://usa.all-startelescope.com/products/sky-watcher-star-adventurer-gti-mount-kit-s20595?sca_ref=2829363.lssRVxtvfU

Telescope $329 Evolux 62 (how they even make an astrophotography grade telescope at this price, I have no idea):

https://usa.all-startelescope.com/products/sky-watcher-evolux-62ed-doublet-apo-refractor-s11305?sca_ref=2829363.lssRVxtvfU

Field Flattener for this telescope (required) $269:

https://usa.all-startelescope.com/products/sky-watcher-evolux-62ed-reducer-flattener-0-9x-s20206?sca_ref=2829363.lssRVxtvfU

Camera $602: This new cooled astro camera has a smaller sensor, but also smaller pixels. You can see a detailed video on this camera at the YouTube Link below (Thanks Cuiv!): https://youtu.be/zibS7JyKdw8?si=L9GTtd2Hzcn8dOch

https://usa.all-startelescope.com/products/zwo-asi585mc-pro-planetary-colour-camera-asi585mc-p?sca_ref=2829363.lssRVxtvfU

Guide Scope and Guide Camera: No need for anything fancy here, the 30mm scope and small mono camera will work just fine.

Guide Scope $99: https://usa.all-startelescope.com/products/zwo-30f4-mini-guide-scope-zwo-30f4?sca_ref=2829363.lssRVxtvfU

Guide Camera $149: https://usa.all-startelescope.com/products/zwo-asi120mm-mini-usb2-0-mono-asi120mini?sca_ref=2829363.lssRVxtvfU

ASIair Mini $199: https://usa.all-startelescope.com/products/zwo-asiair-mini-zwo-asiair-mini?sca_ref=2829363.lssRVxtvfU

And, if you want to shoot under light polluted skies, or in narrow band, the L-eNhance is a great introductory filter $229:

https://usa.all-startelescope.com/products/optolong-l-enhance-light-pollution-filter-2-opt-l-enhance-2?sca_ref=2829363.lssRVxtvfU

All in, this totals $2,616 USD (March 2024 prices). Which is about $1,000 less expensive than a similar system I might of put together in 2022 or 2023.

I hope you found this helpful! Thanks Neil Finkle for the idea to write this blog post, and for your great emails, that ask all the right questions!

Note: If you go with the SvBony Telescope, this field flattener will work: https://usa.all-startelescope.com/products/orion-focal-reducer-0-8x-for-ed-refractors-08894?sca_ref=2829363.lssRVxtvfU