In December 2022 my family and I started our transition from Puerto Rico back to Austin Texas... but we took an unusual route... via New Zealand... really need to refresh my geography again :). We spent 2 weeks in New Zealand starting in Aukland on the North Island and working our way all they way to the south island as far south as Queensland. Prior to the trip I focused on getting a travel scope together that would be easy enough to carry around but still have all the luxuries of a full mount setup. The setup I came up with all fit (minus the tripod) into a small carry on which was key cause I didn't want to trust the setup to baggage handling. The setup consisted of:
Rainbow Astro 135e - Harmonic Drive Mount
Radian Raptor 61 - Triplet Refractor
Primaluce Lab Eagle 4 - Astro Computer
Radian Carbon Fiber Tripod
ZWO 1.25 x 5 Position Filter Wheel
ZWO 1600 MM - Astro Camera
Overall the setup was easy to transport and setup though you still need to tighten down the screws and get everything back into alignment prior to imaging even if you carry it yourself everywhere.
The trip was amazing, though most nights were cloudy and we didn't get to see that unique Southern Hemisphere sky... or a lot of the mountains come to think of it. Put we did have one night where the sky was pretty clear and we were in a dark sky in the town of Ohakune on the north island. I setup my scope in a parking lot with brighter lights than I would have wanted and some fellow tourist asking directions with their headlights pointed at my scope (grrrr). But I got my first image of a southern sky object, the Carina Nebula. Would have loved to get more exposure time and darker area but I'm happy with my first of what I hope to not by my last southern hemisphere nebula.
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