Plunged into the deep dark cosmos...Gear questions abound...

Advice

So, I got the permission of the wifey to splurge on a "complete" rig about a month ago.

This is what I have so far, and not sure where I want/should go from here....

Sky-Watcher Esprit ED80 OTA

Sky-Watcher AL-EQ55i mount and tripod

Explore Scientific 30mm eyepiece

Explore Scientific 14mm eyepiece

SVBONY 6/9/15/20 mm eyepiece set

SVBONY 3x Barlow

SVBONY OAG and filter drawer along with 905c camera

Canon EOS M ring adaptor

I already had an EOS M50, so I figured before going "whole-hog" I would try it for astrophotography.

Now, I'm trying to figure out my best options for controlling all this gear.

I've looked at ASIAIR (obviously can't), looked into StellarMate, AstroberryOS, and stumbled across ToupTek StellaVita. I may, in the near future, go with dedicated astrocam, along with filter wheel, EAF, etc, so am leaning on going the ToupTek route for all of that.

Also thinking of using a spare Framework laptop mobo (that I have mounted in the coolermaster case, already loaded with windows 11 pro) for a control PC.

Does anybody have any thoughts, good idea fairies, or words of wisdom?

Thanks

Posted Apr 6, 2026, 1:13 AM UTC

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