AR5 5" Achromat refractor and Saturn last night

[DaveGibbons]

Hi All, I had a go at Saturn with my ar5 5" refractor. The seeing was not good and nothing under mag 3 could be seen hence the dimness of the images. Achromats are not used that often for imaging but at f9.3 chromatic abberation is not that bad. The objective was also slightly out of collimation after I fitted a new focusser although I have corrected that today as it has a collimatable cell.

2X barlow and webcam at F18.6

I know it's a bit dim but as I said visibility was very poor!

cheers

Dave

[GordonCopestake]

Nice image Dave, cassini very clear there. Out of curiosity why use the AR5 rather than the C925 for planetary? I would have thought the longer focal length would make it easier?

[DaveGibbons]

Gordon, I like a challenge! No it's all I have, the c9.25 has moved on to a nice new home - great scope but I needed the cash for something else . I just wanted to show that you don't need a large aperture, or an apo refractor to image the planets. I bought the OTA for very little cash 2nd hand, although I have changed the focusser(a tale to tell in another post about that one). Some of the cash will be going towards a PST , after viewing through one for the first time last week , it was rather good.

Dave

[GordonCopestake]

Ahhh I see. You seem to be changing 'scopes as often as I do hehe.

The achro is a very underrated instrument I must say, I've enjoyed every one i've owned.

Although i've only owned (counts on fingers) 5 so far!

[geppetto]

Quality image Dave 8)

Bet you were pleased with that one

[jcm]

Not alot different to what I have been getting with a 5" apo.

Good effort.

John

[barkis]

There is great potential there Dave. That image is quite sharp and detailed.

Just keep doing what you're doing.

Ron.

[tom.yates]

Great image Dave.