Adding variety to astrophotography often means additional equipment and complexity in set-ups. The weeks of cloudy or poor skies this spring, finds me a bit rusty. In the spirit of spring cleaning and preparing for a couple of highly anticipated astro adventures, I've decided to get better organized.

My astrophotography equipment has evolved into task oriented groups: prime focus lunar, video planetary, solar close up, etc. However, I find that I often try new things and also have alternate packaging depending on whether I'll be hiking, driving, or flying. The result: I've had a few close calls with forgotten items.

My solution is a combination of packing lists and images. I'm using task oriented hierarchical templates in Apple notes for my packing lists. I just copy the lists for the activities I plan to a new note for the trip, customize as needed, and check off items as I pack. The hierarchy makes it easy to see or remove groups of related items. Lots of other apps could do this job from a simple text editor to a spreadsheet, but Notes does a great job and everything is synced between my macBook, iPhone, iPad, and the cloud. Here's and example from my telescope packing list:

Photos of items packed in different travel cases for different tasks, helps me remember how I fit items in before and consistency helps me find them. Here's an example of an airplane carry-on kit:

Now all I need is a few weeks of clear, steady, skies.