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Gina's Esprit 80ED Pro Unboxing and First Impressions

Gina

By Gina
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Gina
Gina

Seems to be working   Big box contains scope small box the flattener.   Boxes within boxes More photos to follow...

Gina
Gina

Setting up camera, filter wheel and OAG.  This also shows the very nice little finder scope and mounting rings.  With this on the filter wheel can stand out to one side with the finder scope and guide

Gina
Gina

Yer tis   The red-brick house has become a yellow-brick house and the grass has turned blue

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Gina

Gina

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If I can't get parfocal red, green and blue, this scope is going back :(  Yes, the whole point is that all colours should focus at the same distance.  This is only the first test, of course, but the FWHM was less than 2 for the red, around 3 for the green and around 4 for the blue.  This is not thermal focal change because the red was the same throughout the test, as were the other colours taken in RGBRGBRGB sequence.  The complete RGB sequence only took a few minutes anyway. 

I plan to get everything else right including guiding then run these tests again.  I shall also run them on the Evostar 80EDs too for comparison.  At over twice the price I would expect the Esprit to be a fair bit better than the Evostar.

Still wondering if I'm flogging a dead horse :(  The Esprit has not been an easy ride - just one high point - meeting Steve.

I think I'll take the Esprit imaging rig off the mount and put the MN190 and twin Evostars back on.  Use the OAG on the MN190 for guiding.  Then I could put the Esprit on the top bar on top of the MN190 or alternatively instead of one of the Evostars.

I think if this sample of the Esprit is faulty I might just give up on this model - I shall have had enough.  I can't afford a Tak but "joining the Borg Collective" might just be a possibility - I like the shorter foacl length.

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Gina

Gina

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Well, the files are showing as uploaded to my dropbox in Public/Esprit Tests.  Now I need to get onto their web site to get the download address.

post-13131-0-03265900-1388422088_thumb.p

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Gina

Gina

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Dropbox OK now so here are the links :-

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/39971951/Esprit%20Tests/test_32112.fit

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/39971951/Esprit%20Tests/test_32140Blue-10s.fit

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/39971951/Esprit%20Tests/test_32140Green-10s.fit

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/39971951/Esprit%20Tests/test_32140Red-10s.fit

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Gina

Gina

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Hmmm.. well, so far the Baaders seem parfocal enough on my Esprit not to have to refocus on a LRGBLRGB run Gina.

Good :)  Maybe I've got something wrong but I can't think what.  I would dearly like this scope to be alright - a Borg equivalent would cost a lot more.  If this scope has to go back I might just stick to lenses for WF.

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Sp@ce_d

Sp@ce_d

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My initial thoughts on a quick look at the RGB is poor seeing. The comparative star sizes are consistent with what I see on my subs. With the blue being smallest.. quite the opposite to what we're used to with doublets. :grin:

Edit: They don't appear sharp.. would be nice to have a bahtinov to compare against your FWHM readings.

Edit2: I'd also put the oval star shapes down to the mount rather than the scope.

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Gina

Gina

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My initial thoughts on a quick look at the RGB is poor seeing. The comparative star sizes are consistent with what I see on my subs. With the blue being smallest.. quite the opposite to what we're used to with doublets. :grin:

Edit: They don't appear sharp.. would be nice to have a bahtinov to compare against your FWHM readings.

Edit2: I'd also put the oval star shapes down to the mount rather than the scope.

I wondered if it was seeing.  Next time I run tests I'll do a focus run on each colour to see where the FWHM minimum is for each.   I don't have a Bahtinov for the Esprit - I always use minimum FWHM for focussing.  If the oval stars are due to mount/PA then guiding should fix this.

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Sp@ce_d

Sp@ce_d

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I wondered if it was seeing.  Next time I run tests I'll do a focus run on each colour to see where the FWHM minimum is for each.   I don't have a Bahtinov for the Esprit - I always use minimum FWHM for focussing.  If the oval stars are due to mount/PA then guiding should fix this.

Yes, I don't think you should be worried Gina. The weather has been awful & it's frustrating us all but I think you are close with this. Getting a decent nights seeing & PA/guiding on the mount should sort this I'm sure.

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Gina

Gina

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The sky's clearing and we are forecast some clear spells so I might just have another go at the RGB tonight.  I think I could reduce the exposure to 5s to reduce the problem of star trailing.

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Gina

Gina

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Scope looks OK :)  Gathering more data... and copying the captured data from warm room laptop to living room desktop...

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dmahon

dmahon

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it's frustrating - if it isn't one thing it's another! My dome is having problems, just waiting for a firmware upgrade. My filterwheel is playing silly buggers and my DC focus motor is now moving at a snail's pace.

I think I'll bring it all inside when I get the chance, strip it down and see what's what.

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Gina

Gina

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it's frustrating - if it isn't one thing it's another! My dome is having problems, just waiting for a firmware upgrade. My filterwheel is playing silly buggers and my DC focus motor is now moving at a snail's pace.

I think I'll bring it all inside when I get the chance, strip it down and see what's what.

Absolutely!!   Been there, done that, got the T shirt...

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Gina

Gina

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Tonight's FITS files (some of them)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/39971951/Esprit%20Tests/test_32206Lum-10s.fit

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/39971951/Esprit%20Tests/test_32206Red-10s.fit

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/39971951/Esprit%20Tests/test_32206Green-10s.fit

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/39971951/Esprit%20Tests/test_32206Blue-10s.fit

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JohnC64

JohnC64

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Hi Gina,  had a look at the original files and to me it looks like the blue channel image was slightly rotated.  When I registered them in PI and RGBCombined them, and then AutoSTF'd them, they came out with nice round stars. (Albeit with a bit of seeing around the stars )  I think that your optics are fine. :-)

John

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Gina

Gina

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Thank you both :)  Yes, looks like the scope is fine - phew - talk about a roller-coaster ride :D

What we all need, of course, is some clear night skies to really get going again.  At last an odd hour now and again but it's still very frustrating!

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dmahon

dmahon

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it's frustrating - if it isn't one thing it's another! My dome is having problems, just waiting for a firmware upgrade. My filterwheel is playing silly buggers and my DC focus motor is now moving at a snail's pace.

I think I'll bring it all inside when I get the chance, strip it down and see what's what.

Good news for me too. Unbolted the focuser and bolted it back on - seems to work fine now. Moot point anyway as I'd ordered a stepper based focuser only a few hours before. Will give it away with the HiTec Astro controller that will shortly be in the classifieds.

The filterwheel was slipping - undid the central bolt a bit and works fine again now. Bit of a grinding noise at one point but always had that and Terry from SX has of offered to look at it anyway.

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Gina

Gina

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I took some LRGB subs of M42 - two sets 1s and 10s - 20 of each.  I have stacked these with DSS and uploaded the TIFF files to dropbox.  I'll post links once dropbox has stopped playing silly beggars :D

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Gina

Gina

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https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/39971951/Esprit%20Tests/M42-Lum%201s.TIF

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/39971951/Esprit%20Tests/M42-Red%201s.tif

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/39971951/Esprit%20Tests/M42-Green%201s.tif

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/39971951/Esprit%20Tests/M42-Blue%201s.tif

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