Gina's Esprit 80ED Pro Unboxing and First Impressions

[FLO]

It was a pleasure meeting you today Gina  

The number of projects you are working on or have completed is remarkable 

Steve 

[Gina]

It was a pleasure meeting you today Gina

The number of projects you are working on or have completed is remarkable 

Steve 

Thank you Steve   It was lovely meeting you too   I take on far too many projects really  

[Gina]

I now have the new Esprit set up on the mount with flattener, adapter, EFW2 and 460EX with a nice image of a conifer tree a mile away on the next hill   Unfortunately some bands of cloud have appeared now - just hoping they'll go away later.

[Tinker1947]

I have Venus and the Moon in the South West, your bands on the radar are going to  clear should be a good night over most of the UK.....

[Dave_D]

I have Venus and the Moon in the South West, your bands on the radar are going to  clear should be a good night over most of the UK.....

All the clouds will probably sit over manchester as usual 

[Tinker1947]

All the clouds will probably sit over manchester as usual 

Not tonight Dave, get the kit cooling..

[SnakeyJ]

Should get a good run in tonight Gina and no moon to limit your options - Look forward to seeing some great shots from the new setup.

Thank you Steve   It was lovely meeting you too   I take on far too many projects really

No such thing as too many projects, the only hard limits are time and money!

[Gina]

I have Venus and the Moon in the South West, your bands on the radar are going to  clear should be a good night over most of the UK.....

Thank you - yes it's clear now

Edited December 4, 2013 by Gina

[Gina]

OK...  A first, quick test.  This is a 1m exposure unbinned but with the focus roughly set manually.  I've added the remote fuussing now so will be setting focus as near as possible and taking more images.

Firstly, the whole image resized for upload.

Now the four corners

[Dave_D]

Not tonight Dave, get the kit cooling..

Nope... clouded over the instant i was set up. I really hate manchester. And Gina, we want pics.

[Gina]

RESULT 1  I am happy to report that as a result of tonight's testing I have found that the replacement Esprit 80ED does NOT suffer from pointy stars   I had a bit of a problem with the attachment for the remote focussing motor but the scope seems fine. 

RESULT 2  I achieved an FWHM of under 2 (unbinned) on the 460EX and this was consistent over the whole image area using the field flattener and the prototype FLO adapter, so that seems successful too

[SnakeyJ]

Well done Gina - it's been a long journey and you have tried everything humanly possible.   Hopefully you can catch up on your imaging time now and get some great images with the new scope and mount!

[Gina]

Well done Gina - it's been a long journey and you have tried everything humanly possible.   Hopefully you can catch up on your imaging time now and get some great images with the new scope and mount!

Thank you Jake   Yes, looking forward to doing a proper imaging run.  I was having trouble with my DIY remote focussing system last night - I had attached the focus motor temporarily.  I shall be taking the scope off complete with dovetail bar and make a proper motor attachment.

With the focussing problems I thought I'd use the clear skies to improve the PA but try as I might I just couldn't get AT's PA tool to work - it just refused to solve anything I gave it.  Tried all sorts.  Last time it worked a treat until stopped by cloud.  I just don't know what the problem was last night.  About 1am I gave up - there was ice everywhere but on the scope objective lens, camera and mount which had their own heating.  There was ice in the dew shield and down inside it almost as far as the lens unit - I haven't put a dew heater on the scope and won't do until I find it needs it but looks like it won't.

Edited December 5, 2013 by Gina

[FLO]

…. Gina, we want pics.

Yes, pix would be good  

I have a feeling your earlier problems were were due to spacing. At f5 the Esprit-80 needs precise spacing, the adapter we left you has enabled you to achieve that. When I setup your telescope for my own use I am not expecting to find a problem but if I do I'll post details here. Promise 

Steve

[wxsatuser]

Well done FLO.........thats real customer service. :icon_salut:

[Gina]

Yes indeed!   I would like to thank Steve publically for taking time out to personally deiiver my replacement scope (and the adapter) and for patiently listening to all my showing off   I do have this fault of rabbitting on about what I've done   I feel rather embarrassed afterwards.

[Earl]

I did look at one of these, but the spacing and my ccd just aint gonna work Tak it is Oh well LOL

[Gina]

I did look at one of these, but the spacing and my ccd just aint gonna work Tak it is Oh well LOL

Are you sure?

[Earl]

I need 5 or 6 mm spacing (need to work it out precisely) from the body of my camera for the flattener , and due to sky watcher yet again using M48 camera side I have never seen a M48 CCD and the imaging circle from the adapter does not need M48 T would be fine...(sigh) I have to get an adapter from m48 to T and maintain the spacing means a custom adapter.

[Sp@ce_d]

I need 5 or 6 mm spacing (need to work it out precisely) from the body of my camera for the flattener , and due to sky watcher yet again using M48 camera side I have never seen a M48 CCD and the imaging circle from the adapter does not need M48 T would be fine...(sigh) I have to get an adapter from m48 to T and maintain the spacing means a custom adapter.

I've used one of these http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p378_Baader-Adapter-T2-female-to-M48---2--filterthread.html

with one of these before http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p3504_TS-Adaptor-from-M48--2--filter-thread--to-T2---low-profile.html

though might still be a bit wide for you

[JohnC64]

As one of the adapters for the Esprit, Would FLO be looking at a M65 to T adapter?  That would solve a lot of peoples problems (Mine included!!  )

John

[Earl]

I have used those in the past too, it screams cold weld too as i have had to hack at least half a dozen of those very adapters off various other things

[Gina]

Here are some more results with the replacement scope, flattener and prototype adapter.  This is a stack of 30 x 10s Ha subs, stacked in DSS and stretched in Ps.  There are one or two stars showing points when super stretched but most of the stars are nice and round.  This scope is certainly much better than the other one though I must point out that I haven't tested it without the flattener.  I'll do that sometime.

Here's the full frame

And the bottom left hand corner cropped to give a 1:1 pixel on screen

A section zoomed in the show the pixels

[Tinker1947]

I brought a Astrozap for my C11 from FLO arrived Tuesday, used it last night, the corrector plate after a couple of hours still looked like a piece of crystal glass (it may well be anyway) i would recommend one for you setup Gina, i know we like to make our own i had a piece of cell foam and a dew strap, the cell foam kept going out of shape, the Astrozap is a sort of sprung plastic, flocked inside with a heave duty velcro down the join, the dew heater i haven't really looked at  but it works on a Maplin PSU ok, the lead is ok about 6' long,  its tidy and when the sun comes out (maybe next week) a photo will follow.....Well done with the replacement scope by the way.....

Edited December 5, 2013 by Tinker1947

[Gina]

I brought a Astrozap for my C11 from FLO arrived Tuesday, used it last night, the corrector plate after a couple of hours still looked like a piece of crystal glass (it may well be anyway) i would recommend one for you setup Gina, i know we like to make our own i had a piece of cell foam and a dew strap, the cell foam kept going out of shape, the Astrozap is a sort of sprung plastic, flocked inside with a heave duty velcro down the join, the dew heater i haven't really looked at  but it works on a Maplin PSU ok, the lead is ok about 6' long,  its tidy and when the sun comes out (maybe next week) a photo will follow.....Well done with the replacement scope by the way.....

Yes, I bought an Astrozap for my MN190 after trying to make my own - unsuccessfully.  A dew shield that size is not easy to make so I took the easy way out   And yes, got mine from FLO   Successfully made my own dew heater though

Edited December 5, 2013 by Gina