Under Malaysian Skies: Zaki’s Passion for Deep Sky Imaging

1.How It All Began

2.The Setup

I started with Canon 80D, canon lenses and skywatcher AZ-EQ5 Pro equatorial mount.
During the covid-19 lockdowns, I can no longer travel to the dark site so I purchased my first zwo camera, the 2600MC pro and an asiair pro.
I also bought my first telescope, edgehd 8 for planetary and small DSO.
I purchased equipment from time to time and currently I have 5 setups.
Below is the list of my current equipment.

I m using 3 main setups
Am5 + 2600mm Duo + Canon EF 600mm F4 L IS II
Ioptron CEM40 + 2600mm Pro + Espirit 120ED
Wave 150i + 2600mm Pro + EdgeHD11

Secondary setup
AM5 + 2600mc Pro + FRA500
EQ6R + 2600mc Pro + Acl200 + mirrorless camera + Canon EF 200mm F2 L ( Dual OTA )

For medium size DSO will use the EF 600mm and Espirit 120ED,
While the edgehd11 is for smaller target.
I will switch to ACL200 or Fra500 for wider field of view.

Prior to 2025, I travel to dark sky area a lot, sometimes every day, 3-5 days per week.
For me my biggest game-changer is Zwo Asiair and Zwo AM5 mount.
Asiair makes everything easy, especially the polar alignment and plate solving.
While AM5 lighten the equipment, and I can forget about balancing.
Combination of these two equal to fast setup and I can start imaging a lot faster than before.

3.Under the Stars

I live about 15km from the heart of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur with bortle 9 sky, so I have to travel about 90km to Kuala Kubu Bharu, the nearest bortle 4 sky every time I was imaging.
This place has been my main imaging place too many times until recently, and even now even though I already have my own observatory, I will still go there to catch up some old time.
I also travel to Mersing, east of Malaysia where I can get access to darker sky once a month, normally for 2-3 nights imaging trip.

During the lockdown, I have no choice but to shoot from my front yard.
But shooting at dark sky means I can enjoy the moment as well and “feel” the darkness. It’s like watching football from the stadium and not from tv, if you know what I mean.

In 2024 I joined a trip to an island east of Malaysia. I will never forget the feeling,
While imaging I lay down on the sand, looking at the vast dark sky around me. And its feel like I m blending to the universe with all the star around me.
It was a mesmerizing moment for me.

4.The Challenge

Astrophotography is always about the weather, cloudy days means no imaging.
Being just a bit north of the equator, Malaysia is hot, humid and rainy throughout the year. It’s extremely rare to have full day with completely clear sky even during the period of severe drought.
We can always upgrade our equipment, repair the broken and improve our skills but nothing we can do about the weather.
I learned that the only way I can add to my imaging time is by adding more setup, so I can double/ triple my imaging time during clear sky.

And as everyone else that live in big city, light pollution is severe, bortle 9 on my front yard means broadband is difficult, and data collection need a lot more then imaging at dark sky.
The solution for me is to travel, a lot so I can enjoy imaging at dark sky and collecting clean data.

5.The Processing

A good data is what matter most; a bad data will limit the final result.
We grow and learned and we can always reedit our data to a better result if we capture good quality data.
Imaging data at dark sky, less light pollution is the key.
Next, I will review all the data for image quality check, will exclude any data with bad star shape, clarity issue due thin clouds etc.
Only then I will start the stacking and editing process, with Pixinsight and Photoshop.

6.The Achievement

I love to shoot dim, dark nebula and dust clouds.
The Cederblad 51 is one of my favorite project to date.
Shot at 3 different dark location, I managed to collect about 22 hours’ worth of data in HaLRGB.
My running chicken Nebula that I shot at my hometown manage to win the ASIWEEK #26/2024. That was my first international recognition, and it help to boost my passion and dedication for this hobby.

Comet is always difficult to shoot in Malaysia, clear sky near the horizon is very rare to see. So normally have to wait till the comet a bit high enough normally above 10 degrees. I was lucky the day I shot the C/2025 R2 (SWAN) nearby the Eagle Nebula. The sky was clear just enough for me to collect broadband and narrowband data and chosen as winner for #ASIWEEK #42/2025.

7.The Vision – Looking Ahead

2025 is a new chapter for me. I build my own observatory at my hometown Batu Pahat, Johor where my parents live, with a bortle 4 sky.
But observatory more than 200km from where I live means I need to do everything remotely, so I spent a lot of time setting everything and make sure everything work perfectly since nobody will be able to help if any problem occurs.
The zwo CAA came just in time during the setup and I purchased 3 of it, with Zwo Eaf and EFW so I can change focus, angle and filter remotely.
Now I’m shooting all the time remotely, any clear nights, from anywhere, and thanks to the ZWO ecosystem I can do this with ease.

I’m going back hometown from time to time to look after my parents, and fix any issue.
With this remote observatory, now I can spend more time with family, and access to dark sky at the same time. Best decision ever.

8.The connection – Zwo in Your Journey

Zwo have been with me from the start. It makes everything easy.
My 1(st) camera is zwo 2600MC + Asiair Pro. And currently all my setup is built mostly with Zwo equipment. I hope to see a better Asiair or PC version with better control and advance option of the Asiair apps so I can do more remotely.
Now I m using the Asiair together with Nina, but being too used to asiair for years, it would be nice to be able to imaging with multiple OTA at the same time with single setup.