In the fall of 2020, after suffering the slings and arrows of a complex rig like the Celestron EdgeHD 1100 for several months, I decided I wanted a simpler, wider-field telescope to complement that long focal length. I was still very much a neophyte at astrophotography, so I didn't want to spend a lot of money. I opted for a William Optics ZenithStar 61 (Z61) riding on an iOptron CEM25-EC mount.

At first, I opted to go with a ZWO ASI294MC one-shot color (OSC) camera. I used that successfully for several months, but then wanted to be able to take advantage of a larger field of view that the telescope could deliver. So then I moved to a ZWO ASI2600MC OSC. This served me well for a year or so. But then I finally landed on a monochrome ZWO ASI6200MM with filter wheel and Chroma filters. That provided some great imaging until I donated the entire rig to Reach for the Stars, a children's outreach nonprofit, in late 2023.

I used this rig mostly at home, but it traveled far and wide with me taking images at Big Bend in Texas, Princeton Peak in Colorado, Pedernales Falls in southern Texas, Palo Duro Canyon in West Texas, and Borrego Springs in California, to name just a few places where I used it.