First light using EQ6 Synscan

[Vega]

After a cloudy Christmas day, I noticed a swathe of blue on the horizon . The blanket of blue slowley but surely made it's march across the whole sky ready for sunset. Looks like I get my first real use of the EQ6 on Christmas day!

Lifting the mount from the garage without scope or counterweights was still heavy but seems an easy enough task which is a good start. Hooked her up to the spare car battery and began polar alignment. What a breeze it is with the fantastic illuminated polar scope, could just about see the imprinted diagrams of casioppeia and lined it all up in a snap. Being especially carefull with my already weak alt adjusting screws (see my thread in equipment help, thats a whole other story) . Next, two more trips from the shed for the 3 counterweights and 250px OTA. All balanced and started the 3 star align. I seemed to get the most accurate results when I used Vega in the West, another unknown star and Betleguise in the East. The GOTO wasn't pointing to things perfectly but it was close enough. Nothing a few adjustments with the hand controller couldn't fix to center my targets.

The EQ6 Syscan holds that 250px tube rock solid. There's a reasuring stirdy feel to the whole setup, this mount really is a strong beast. As I am using the OTA from my Skyscan dobsonian, the all white mount and scope look is kinda sexy too . I whizzed around a few objects to test the GOTO. It confirmed my worries about the height of the eyepeice when looking above 30deg anywhere in the West. At this location of the sky, the eyepeice is on the top side of the OTA and high up. Nothing a small stool couln't solve but might be a problem for some visiting viewers which I hope to show Saturn off with this setup. Next time I set it up I might rotate the tube round so the the eyepiece position is on the side of the OTA at this location of the sky. Mars was dissapointing.. no surface detail at all apart from a hint of the polar ice cap. Was great being able to whiz through all 3 of the Auriga clusters in 1 minute 8). Due to the moon I did not spent any real gazing time on them. Then zoomed up to the Perseus clusters and M31. Due to them being near the zenith was a good sight even with the just past full moon on it's way up in the West. Now was my chance to really make use of the goto... the blue snowball.. have struggled to find it since trying in November.. punched in the NGC number and off it went... There it was, quite off center even in the 32mm EP. A nice bright sphere in the 10mm EP after centering it. In a similar way I managed to point to the cats eye realising it's gonna be too small for photography with a DSLR so taken it off my photo list for now. The moon had finally cleared the neighbours house. Me being lazy and still not tiring of the futuristic sound of the motors, I punched in the Moon to the goto . A fine sight in the 6mm Radian which I had already seen on the dobsonian platform but having the moon completely still in the eyepiece made it look a whole lot better . I was however on a stool pearing right over the top of the whole OTA :shock:.

Finally, I got the DSLR out to see how a simple 3 star alignment would handle some photography. M45 was an obvious easy target to test with. This was the first time I attached the DSLR to the 250px (for obvious reasons). Focusing was easy with the crayford. A 30 sec ISO 1600 exposure revealed wonderful spiked stars with zero star trailing, not bad considering I had never drift aligned! The moon however had caused horrendus pollution in the background. A 60 ISO 800 second shot showed some trailing however... but to be expected without guiding or drift alignment. Very much looking forward to my photography adventures with this setup. While packing, I couldn't help but notice Orion fully up in the South West. Could'nt resist the urge to punch in m42 on the hand controller . A street light is about 3 deg away at this time so the view in the 32mm was not mind blowing. The trapezium was stunning in the 10mm however and I could just about notice the 'green tinge' that is talked about in M42 but it may have been my imagination in all the excitement. A moonless night when Orion is clear from my light polluted W horizon will confirm all that in time. I finally put things away at 9 (other comittments on the big day of course). All packed away in it's new home to hang out with the eq3-2 and scopes (my astro shed). I come back in the house with a big smile on my face.

Thanks for reading.. it was a bit long

Matt

[lunator]

Matt

nice report

sounds am acew set up.

Staurn through the scope will be fantastic.

Look forward to seeing some pics of the set up and through the set up

Cheers

Ian

[barkis]

That was a nice read Matt, I enjoyed it very much. You can tell you report it as it was, and that's great.

There is no doubt your new mount is going to improve your astronomy a great deal. It is quite understandable that you rushed through things, It is only natural, you are human after all, and we all take shortcuts when we can't wait to get on with a new piece of equipment.

Of course you realize without me or anyone else telling you, that you have to do everything in the book, if you are to get it working spot on.

I hope you get load of pleasure from your new mount, you are off to a good start, and may it continue.

Thanks for the commentary, it was good, and we all look forward to hearing and perhaps even seeing the results of your progress.

Happy New Year.

Ron.

[Jamie]

Hi Matt

I too have the EQ6 Pro Skyscan and its just brill IMHO, I have been all over our galaxy with its sky tour option.

A superb choice of mount. 8) 8) 8)

[Andrew*]

I'm fairly sure that's the mount that's gonna sit on my astro station 8) but for now I'm cool with the HEQ5.

That was a great report and sounds like fun. Are you gonna post your M45?

Cheers

Andrew

[Vega]

Here's the M45 test pic

As I said... the moonlight sure did help the streetlights brighten up the background! In the mad rush I even forgot to orientate the camera the right way to catch the whole cluster

I will get on to a pic of the mount/scope itself and post it up in the members equip gallery soon

Matt

[David Galvin]

Great report and excellent website

Looks like you are going to be busy in 2008 and I am looking forward to seeing more of your images and reports.

P.S What street and moon light, the image looks brill in Photoshop

[David Galvin]

Ha Ha Ha I messed that up a bit.

Okay delete that first one and I will try again. I have got to learn how to use Photshop!

[Vega]

Nice work...Was that a gauessin blur and subtract? When i did it in PSP the stars had a bit of a greenish tinge to them.

Which way did you get rid of the LP and can the same thing be done in Paintshop Pro?

Matt

[David Galvin]

No Mat, nothing as fancy as a Gauessin blur I just loaded your image up in Adobe Photoshop CS2 ( I hope that you did not mind) and played with the R,G and B levels until the red and blue dropped a little. It shows that you can make a presentable image out of a heavily light polluted one even when you don't have a clue how to use Photoshop. I really would love to know how others do it as to me it is some form of black art.