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Starpoint Australis

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Perth, WA
Starpoint Australis

Specialising in bespoke, intelligent, purpose-designed equipment and astronomy experiences
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06/09/2026

Sunday Skies ✦ Captured by Luke Shepard

The Lagoon & Trifid Region - M8 & M20

Sitting amongst the rich star fields of the Milky Way in Sagittarius, the Lagoon Nebula (M8) and Trifid Nebula (M20) make one of those pairings that just belong in the same frame.

At around 4,000 light-years away, M8 dominates the lower half of the image as a huge region of glowing gas and active star formation. Above it sits M20, easily recognised by the dark dust lanes that divide its bright core into three distinct lobes. What makes the Trifid particularly interesting is the mix happening within the same object — red emission, blue reflection and dense dark dust all sitting together.

Luke processed this one as an LRGBSHO blend, using the narrowband data to bring out the structure and ionised gas throughout the region while retaining the more natural appearance of the stars through the LRGB data.

Integration
LRGBSHO Blend
SHO ~36 subs per filter | LRGB ~18 subs per filter

04/09/2026

Not everything had to stop just because the detent puck needed a rethink.

While its redesign was still on the list, Brendan continued laying out the other pieces of the system. The optical encoder brackets, the original detent puck and the beginnings of the belt guides.

This is where the Vela 9 prototype really started doing its job.

Some parts were proving themselves, others were being refined and a few were already destined for a complete redesign.

Bit by bit, the mechanical systems were finding their place... even if some of them wouldn't be staying there for long. 😏

02/09/2026

Well... remember Brendan's motto?

"If it works well in plastic, it'll work even better in metal."

Turns out there was one small problem.

This didn't work well in plastic. At all. 😂

With the carousel and detent hub assembled, complete with some very sophisticated fake filters that are almost the right colours, Brendan could finally test how the system actually behaved.

And it didn't take long to discover a problem.

Upon reflection, Brendan's technical assessment was fairly straightforward...

It was a s**t design.

The detent hub wasn't behaving the way he wanted it to, and rather than trying to make a bad idea work, it was back to the drawing board.

Detent hub redesign: officially added to the list.

And this is exactly why we prototype.

30/08/2026

Sunday Skies ✦ Captured by Steve Paxton

Cosmic Mountain

Sometimes shooting wide reveals something you weren’t originally looking for. While planning a wider field, this formation caught Steve’s attention rising out of the surrounding nebulosity like a huge mountain or as Steve first saw it, a shark fin.

It’s a region that isn’t commonly photographed in isolation, and one Steve says he probably would never have noticed without first looking at the wider field.

To capture the entire structure, Steve returned when the region was back in position and created a three-panel vertical panorama. This part of the sky is particularly rich in hydrogen, producing the deep reds running throughout the image and outlining the enormous ridges, dark dust and finer structures along the edge of the cloud.

Steve has called this one “Cosmic Mountain.”

Sky-Watcher 200mm f/4 Premium Photo Quattro Reflector
QHY268M | Sky-Watcher NEQ6 Pro (Hypertuned)
Antlia Filters (LRGBSHaO) | QHYCFW3 Filter Wheel
Sky-Watcher f/4 Aplanatic Coma Corrector | Starpoint Australis SP3 Focuser
ZWO CAA Rotator | SVBony 50mm Guide Scope | QHY5L-II-M Guide Camera

Ha/SII Narrowband with RGB stars

Total integration: 14h 50′
Ha 300s × 80 | SII 300s × 80
R 60s × 30 | G 60s × 30 | B 60s × 30

28/08/2026

Time to get this thing off the computer screen.

At this stage of the design, Brendan wanted to physically see how everything was going to fit together before we committed to machining the real components.

So, off to the 3D printer we went.

These plastic versions gave Brendan the chance to assemble the carousel and drive hub, check the fitment, clearances and alignment, and make sure what worked in CAD also worked when you could actually hold it in your hands.

It's a much cheaper place to find a problem than after you've started cutting aluminium!

Brendan's motto has always been pretty simple: If it works well in plastic, it'll work even better in metal.

And thankfully, things were looking pretty good.

26/08/2026

Now that Brendan knew exactly where the electronics were going to live, he could finally start closing everything in.

With the boards positioned, connections accounted for and cable routing worked out, the remaining cases and covers could be designed around what was actually sitting underneath them.

And this is where the Vela 9 really starts to look finished.

Those covers might seem like the easy part, but they couldn't really be finalised until everything underneath had found its place. The last thing you want is to design a nice neat cover only to discover a connector, cable or component wants to occupy the same piece of real estate.

Piece by piece, the outside was finally catching up with everything we'd been designing on the inside.

23/08/2026

Sunday Skies ✦ Captured by Carlos Taylor |

Centaurus A (NGC 5128) is one of the most distinctive galaxies in the southern sky, located roughly 12 million light years away in the constellation Centaurus.

Its most recognisable feature is the enormous dark dust lane cutting directly across its bright elliptical glow. That unusual structure is the result of a past galactic merger, with vast amounts of gas and dust still stretched across the galaxy and providing the raw material for ongoing star formation.

At its centre sits an active supermassive black hole, making Centaurus A one of the closest and best-studied active galaxies to Earth. In this deep 22-hour image, the prominent dust lane dominates the core while the much fainter outer halo extends well beyond it into the surrounding star field.

Sky-Watcher Quattro 250P / 10-S
ToupTek ATR585C | Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro
ZWO UV/IR Cut 2"
Sky-Watcher Quattro Coma Corrector | Starpoint Australis SP3 EAF | ZWO CAA Camera Angle Adjuster

Total integration: 22h
L 300s × 264

21/08/2026

The electronics had a design. Now Brendan needed to make sure they actually had somewhere to live.

Although this wasn't the final version of the board, it could now be placed into the Vela 9 design so Brendan could start working out exactly how everything would fit around it.

Where would the connections sit? How would the cables be routed? Was there enough clearance around the other components? And, importantly, could everything still be accessed once the covers were fitted?

This is why the electronics had to come before the final case and cover design. There was no point designing a beautiful housing only to discover later that something didn't fit or a cable had nowhere to go.

Once Brendan was happy that everything had its place, the electronics could move towards becoming a live board and the Vela 9 could move another step closer to leaving the computer screen.

19/08/2026

At this point, the mechanical design had to take a bit of a back seat.

Before Brendan could finish designing the rear covers and cases, he needed to know exactly what had to fit inside them.

Enter the electronics.

This is one of those stages of the design process that takes a huge amount of mental energy because we're not just designing for what the Vela 9 needs today. Brendan is always trying to look ahead and think about where technology could be in five years' time and what we may want the system to be capable of as things evolve.

That means thinking about the electronics, connections, available space and future possibilities before locking the physical design around them.

The first image shows the electronics taking shape in the design, while the second gives you a look at the PCB layout behind it.

Not quite as exciting as watching aluminium chips fly around the workshop... but this little blue board is going to be responsible for a whole lot once the Vela 9 comes to life.

17/08/2026

Sunday Skies ✦ Captured by Brendan Mitchell

The Seagull Nebula is one of those targets just about every astrophotographer has a crack at eventually. It’s big, it’s bright, and framed in its entirety you get that unmistakable seagull shape.

This time, Brendan wanted to do something a little different.

Rather than capturing the whole nebula, he framed a much smaller section of IC 2177, concentrating on the wall of emission and the dark dust running through it. There’s an incredible amount happening in this part of the nebula that can easily get lost when viewing the wider field.

The closer framing brings out the contrast between the bright emission, the dark lanes cutting through it and the finer structures running along the edge of the cloud.

Brendan has called this one “The Seagull’s Wing.”

Not the full bird, just one small part of it, but probably the part he finds most interesting.

Heavily Modified Sky-Watcher 12" f/5 (running at f/5.75)
QHY600L | Sky-Watcher EQ8-Pro (Gen 1)
Starpoint Australis SP 3.5" Focuser (Prototype) | SP Vela 7 (Prototype Gen 1)
Antlia Ha | SII | OIII
Narrowband Combination

Total integration: 13h 45′
Ha 900s × 23 | SII 900s × 17 | OIII 900s × 15

Address

Perth, WA

Opening Hours

Monday	8am - 5pm
Tuesday	8am - 5pm
Wednesday	8am - 5pm
Thursday	8am - 5pm
Friday	8am - 5pm

Website

http://www.starpointaustralis.com.au/

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