About Me

My name is Karol Novotny. I’m born 1979 in Solothurn, Switzerland. I work in an IT security company as Solution Engineer and my big passions are astrophotography and electronic music.

First, why I decided to publish this blog in English? I just want reach as much people as possible. In my opinion English is the best language for that. But my english isn’t perfect at all… Sorry if there are faults 😉

Now back to my little story: “Space-things” always very interested me since I was a kid. In 2011 I had the luck to get a telescope from a buddy. It was a Meade LX10 Schmidt-Cassegrain 8″. With it I did my first experiences in the night sky… Light pollution, alignment, star hopping… I had a lot to learn… and I still have… 😉

With the Meade I observed the most of the time Jupiter and Saturn. Saturn is my absolutely favorite planet!

In May 2015 I bought my own first telescope. And quickly I bought a DSLR for capturing these fantastic objects in the sky. This blog is my personal journal to track and share my experiences in astrophotography.

I realized very fast, the Explorer 130P is not usable for serious photography… Either I’d to buy a telescope and mount for photography and start big, or start small with DSLR lenses at less focal lengths than telescopes on a small mount.

I choosed the second option because of the financial aspect. Additional I have the possibility to walktrough the whole topic astrophotography from short to long focal lenghts.

The name star-watcher shall be a tribute to SkyWatcher, since I use their Explorer 130P SynScan and the great little red mount.

Since August, 2015 I use the SkyWatcher StarAdventurer combined with the Canon EOS 100D for all my pictures.
Since June, 2016 I use the Canon EOS 70D (as primary DSLR) and the Lacerta MGEN II Auto Guider.
Since July, 2021 I use the iOptron GEM28 as my primary mount. Of course I keep the Star Adventurer for unguided usage up to 200mm focal length.

Check out my mobile observatory and visit me on AstroBin or Telescopius.

Clear Skies!

Contact eMail: karol(a)star-watcher.ch
TERMS OF SERVICE AND PRIVACY POLICY.

Equipment

Mounts/Tripods

• iOptron GEM28
• Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer
• Manfrotto MT055XPRO3
• Manfrotto MT190XPRO3/XPRO4
• Manfrotto 496RC2/498RC2 ball heads
• Sky-Watcher SynScan AZ GoTo

Telescopes / Photo Lenses

• Sky-Watcher Explorer 130PDS 650mm f/5
• Sky-Watcher Explorer 130P 650mm f/5
• TS-Optics 50mm Deluxe Guide Scope 205mm f/4.1
• Orion Mini Guide Scope 162mm f/3.2
• Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L
• Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L
• Canon EF 100mm f/2.8
• Canon EF 50mm f/1.4
• Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8
• Samyang 8mm f/3.5 Fish-Eye

Cameras / Guiding Cameras

• Canon EOS 70Da (80-85% H-Alpha-Sensitivity)
• Canon EOS 100D
• Lacerta MGENII

Filter

• Astronomik CLS-CCD EOS Clip Filter
• Astronomik UV-IR Block Filter L-2/L-3

Accessories

• Baader Planetarium Laser Colli Mark III
• Kenko 1.4x Converter
• Gerd Neumann 77mm Bahtinov mask
• Lacerta Bahtinov Mask
• Lacerta LED Flatfieldbox 185mm
• Sky-Watcher Powertank’s 17Ah & 22Ah (upgraded)

Mobile Apps

• Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Mini Console
• Polar Finder

PC Hardware

• Intel Core i7 8700 CPU 3.2GHz (@ 4.3GHz), 6 cores, 12 threads
• 32 GB RAM
• NVME 1TB system drive (also PixInsight swap drive)
• 8 TB dedicated storage for astrophotography
• 8 TB backup storage
• Asus EeeBook X205T

Software

• PixInsight
• Adobe Lightroom
• Stellarium

more