Hi all,
Towards the end of last year the 100th AstroEQ was sold (since then another 15 have been sold). I had intended to make this post then, but was so busy I didn't get a chance. But I will make the post today as AstroEQ has reached its 4th birthday.
Looking back I wasn't actually sure of the exact date that AstroEQ came into being. The earliest forum post I can find on the matter was to the EQMOD Yahoo! group on 19th Jan when I was just starting to play with building the synta protocol decoder. It was over the next couple of weeks that I built the very first firmware version - still have a copy of it, and I can say for certain it's come along way since then.
The first trial of the early AstroEQ - which was nothing more than a bodged together home-made PCB at that point - was February 1st 2012. I was out in the garden that afternoon trying to set up the mount with EQMOD and see if I could track the moon. I seem to recall having no success at all with the tracking - in fact I'm pretty sure nothing in the motor department was working correctly! Anyway, took a photo of the moon regardless which is
on AstroBin. Not a great photo, but that wasn't why I was out there.
It wasn't until about November 1st 2012 that the controller started to take shape - there were many prototypes and firmware revisions in the mean time, but I'll skip over all those to try and keep this post short. That was when I design the first board to fit in an enclosure (the same one still used today). I have Alex (@ASJ) over on AstronomyShed to thank for choosing the case - in fact I seem to recall he also found the Pololu driver boards that I use (the first few prototypes were hand soldered SMDs!). But anyway.
Just thought I would give a quick history to celebrate AstroEQs 4th birthday.
Also, given how many have sold, I was curious to look back at where in the world they have all gone, so I produced a rough map.
There are still 18 missing from that map as I can't find the locations (they predate the AstroEQ website). But as a rough map it is quite interesting. Lots to the UK as you would expect, but also quite a few to Canada, Germany, Australia, and more recently a fair few to the US. One even made it as far as Ascension Island! Currently there are AstroEQs on 5 continents, although it can be claimed 6 continents as Ascension Island is considered part of the African continent. Only and Antarctica to go
.
Anyway, that concludes my ramblings
Kind Regards,
Tom.
