Allinthehead

Thanks, high praise considering the quality of images we see here. Thanks Adam, it does look promising so far. How's your 180 doing now with the new focuser?

Thanks Phillyo, glad you like it.

Thanks Maurice, the extender is what convinced me to go with this over the 180. Agreed, it's something that put me off the stars of the 130.

Hi all, I decided to combine 2 hrs luminance taken with the 160 and Asi2600 with 5 hrs rgb taken with the Epsilon 130 and Asi 071 and this is the result. 2 hrs in 180 second subs Epsilon 160 gain 100 5 hrs 150 second subs Epsilon 130 gain 50 Hope you enjoy, Richard.

Good to see your new focuser working well and those images look great.

Thanks, yes definitely a bonus that it was collimated, nice to just stick a camera on and start imaging.

Nice start with the new camera.

Thank you, absolutely be my guest. Thanks Gorann, yes to be truthful I've long lusted after a 180 but was intrigued with the 160 given the spot size and the extender that's coming soon. 800mm will bring some smaller targets in to play for me. You seem very happy with the Rasa and the results speak for themselves, fast scopes are fun.

Lovely and sharp with a great sense of depth. Rgb stars would really finish this off.

Drop him an email, they may have one.

I would not hesitate, I've bought a nice bit from him, he has even helped me outside of business hours. He's an avid an talented imager too.

I'm sure Flo will be able to get these, it's only just available, Takahashi America are showing it as out of stock with a couple of months lead time.

Beat me to it, Tommy Nawratil has been great to deal with.

Thanks Paul, my apologies for the clouds. I'm actually a little bit jammy when it comes to new gear, usually don't have wait too long for a run out. I recall my 2600mc arrived on a Friday and it was clear that night and the Saturday too. Thanks Adam, pretty impressed it's retained collimation on its travels considering the dents on the outer box🤠 Thanks, I'd love to get this to a dark site. 😯 still twiddling that scope? My condolences, I actually enjoy a little tuning but that's another level.

Thanks Dave, I think I am too. Thanks Brendan, forecast for next week looks good at the moment.

The Epsilon finally arrived on Wednesday after a much anticipated wait, I had a nervous couple of days when DHL delivered the rings but there was no sign of the scope. This is a new design with a new corrector and a primary mirror holder the same as the 180. Unbelievably it arrived collimated perfectly and rotating the focuser doesn't change collimation, something I never managed to achieve with my previous Epsilons. Setup was very straight forward as the spacing is the same as the 130. I needed to have a bracket made up to allow connection between the tube rings and the dovetail. I went for 10mm aluminium to save on weight. When I unboxed I was struck by the size, It's a beast, but is only 2kg heavier than the 130 so still very manageable. Thursday night the clouds cleared and I got 2 hours on the Double Cluster in the moonlight. Last night I got a small gap to continue testing but again in the moonlight. New blue/black colour and pearl yellow on the tube. 2 hours 60 second subs gain 100 with the Asi2600mc 2 hours 180 second subs gain 100. The colour was poor due to the moon so I decided to post mono.

Congrats on a great first light, very natural looking image.

Nicely done Alex, great star colour and I think the dark stuff really stands out.

Lovely double cluster, you can just see the background dust starting to creep in. Great stars too.

Nice catch, love the deep red colour of the nebula.

Thanks Mark.

Just checked the tracking number I got from dhl and the scope is only up the road from me sitting in a warehouse, but it won't be delivered until Monday. 😥 Oh well perma cloud for the next month anyway after buying a scope like this.

Thanks Rodd.

That's great Dave, a new one for me. Any more info on it?

Thanks Olly, it's a favourite region of mine too. I believe this is my fifth attempt at it. Thanks a lot. Thank you very much.