Earlier this month I taught two Deep Space Workshops in Kanab Utah. They both went really well, and all of the students captured some amazing images! It was great to see them going from 0 to 100 in just a few short days. In fact, most of the students had never even used the gear prior to the workshop.

As always, I also learned a lot teaching these workshops. One of the most important discoveries was just how power inefficient the AC adapters are for astrophotography. Based on some unofficial tests, the AC adapters drain between 30% and 50% more energy than the 12V DC cables. This could be problematic if shooting on a long winter's night!

Another important lesson involved the USB 3.0 cables. I have tons of them after purchasing so many ZWO cameras over the years. Apart from a few random exposure failures back in 2019, I've never had much of a problem with the cameras or the ASIAir. However, during this workshop we started to encounter lots of "Exposure Failures" in the ASIAir app. It turns out the main culprit was the USB 3.0 cable that was being used to connect the camera to the ASIAir. If a proper cable is not used, there's a good chance you'll encounter all sorts of problems.

Finally, the most important lesson I learned was just how important it is to gather lots of data. This was the first time I forced myself to capture 10+ hours of data for most targets. When you combine that much data with the dark skies of southern Utah, you should be able to create some spectacular deeps space photos.

Music by @dreamstatelogic