The Engineer Who Turned Passion Into the Stars — Shared by Emmanuel Delgadillo (aka Astrono-mono)

I was born in Guadalajara, I’m 38 years old, a musician, communications and electronics engineer, and president of the Guadalajara Astronomical Society A.C. since 2020.

First Contact with Astronomy

Since I was little, my parents took me to the Planetarium in my city, where I met the Guadalajara Astronomical Society. It had an observatory with a beautiful and enormous telescope, which captivated me from the first time I saw it. There, I knew that space and science would play a very important part in my life. I was the classic child who took apart his toys trying to understand how each one worked. I was fascinated by antennas, cables, and electronics.

At university, I was part of the university television channel, where I learned to use cameras and video cameras, where I found another great passion. In 2010, one day while looking for photography accessories, I found a store that had telescopes on display. I remembered that childhood feeling of looking through a telescope; it was my chance to have my own, and that’s how I acquired my 114-900mm Newtonian telescope. Without any experience, that night my now-wife and I went out into the garden, pointed it at the brightest star, and saw Jupiter for the first time. The excitement was so great that we didn’t hesitate to grab our cameras and try to take a picture of the planet to capture the moment. Without any technique, without experience, or proper equipment, being able to photograph Jupiter was something that left a lasting impression on me. Being able to tell my friends through pictures of what we saw that day with my telescope was incredible. We carried the telescope to every meeting and set it up at every opportunity.

Searching for objects in the sky to photograph became increasingly common. I began sharing my images on social media and connected with the group of astronomers I’d met in my childhood. With them, I had the opportunity to learn how to properly use astronomical equipment and gradually participate in outreach activities. At that moment, I knew I had a responsibility to train myself in astronomy so I could answer questions from the public who, curious, asked me what I was photographing. So, I decided to take various courses and diplomas in astronomy, eventually landing on astronomical instrumentation, which for me was the holy grail, as it combined my engineering studies with the field I was newly passionate about: astronomy.

I immediately began experimenting with equipment. I modified and refrigerated my cameras, even following the habit of assembling and disassembling electronics, and even converted a color camera to monochrome (I don’t recommend this at all), since many of them ended up in the trash along the way.

At the beginning of 2020, when the entire world came to a standstill, I began teaching astrophotography courses online. I tried to explain everything I’d been teaching in person for a while.

The course became quite popular because everyone wanted to stay home. Up until that point, I was still using DSLR cameras and, frankly, I was a bit reluctant to give up on dedicated cameras, perhaps out of nostalgia for those companions that had accompanied me in my experiments. But my students asked me to teach them how to work with narrowband, and since I had such a good experience with my ZWO ASI 120MM, I had no doubt that my first dedicated camera would be a ZWO.

That’s how we were able to acquire an ASI 1600MM-pro, and my world was shaken. I couldn’t believe the amount of information I was obtaining; the noise level was minimal; it was simply out of this world. There was no turning back.

My fascination with the results obtained with these dedicated cameras led me to increasingly educate myself on the specifications of dedicated CMOS cameras and to discover what results I could achieve with other models (and dream of a higher-end camera). I had the 183MC, which I loved; its resolution was a great camera; its relatively small sensor helped me achieve good frames with medium-focal telescopes. Then I had the ASI294, and some time later I moved on to the ASI2600 and ASI6200 series, which are now my permanent setup.

I really haven’t found the sensitivity and versatility of these two cameras anywhere else.

My Wow Moment

My wife and I started astrophotography together, and it’s something we practice regularly and is a vital part of our lives. Our passion and the frequency with which we take photographs led us to decide to build a small observatory on the top floor of our house, where we have both our equipment. I remember on more than one occasion, while making modifications to the house and watching our savings dwindle, we questioned whether it was worth the effort. The answer came soon after. Our main telescope for the observatory, a Takashi Epsilon 180 ED, had just arrived with our new ASI 2600MC Pro with a broadband filter. It was our dream setup. We decided to target the Sagittarius star cloud as our first objective, which was shared as an APOD the day after its publication. Without a doubt, an incomparable motivation.

Game Changer

Until then, I had to carry my computer around when searching for dark skies, where more than once the frustration of relying on a laptop battery wasted many valuable hours of integration. And that’s when I discovered the ASIAIR.

This made everything from planning and capturing to things that were truly tedious, like polar aligning my equipment, so much easier.

It was like finding a whole box of solutions in a single device. Being able to organize my night better, being able to point at an object while the other object automatically positioned itself and autonomously searched for a guide star, and no longer having to worry about Meridian Flip and blurring without any cumbersome setup or hardware complications, or having to install external drivers. It was truly a marvel for me because they thought of everything.

Current Setup

We currently have three complete sets of equipment at the observatory (a 10″ f/5 telescope, combined with an ASI6200MM, EFW filter wheel, EAF focuser, an Epsilon 180 f/2.8 and an FS60, both with an ASI2600MC, also equipped with EAF and EFW.

Likewise, we have two compact setups that we can take into the field: a Samyang 135f2 and a Sharpstar 150 f/2.8, using our ASI2600MC.

We have had the opportunity to showcase our work in numerous galleries and magazines, and to work closely with filter brands and astronomy stores, as well as to obtain sponsorships.

But the most important thing has been being able to share with our colleagues, make great friends, and support them on this astrophotography journey.