Please Help, I've bought a triplet apo and something is wrong!

[Chris]

Hi guys Just thought I would complete this thread with a short first light report:

Looked out last night and could see stars for a change so decided to grab the Ascension triplet apo to give it a whirl. I mounted it in rings on my AZ4 mount and the first thing I did was a star test using my 5mm Vixen SLV @ 96x, this showed lovely tight concentic rings on defocused stars, Phew I thought!

First target was Saturn with the same EP, it was quite low down and about to set behind our house but even so the view was crisp enough to more than hint at the Cassini division at times (when the atmosphere settled). I switched EP's to my 24mm Maxvision @ 20x and sweeped around a bit, the stars were sooo crisp, faint stars appeared as tiny specs! I swung around to M31 which was still in quite a light part of the sky and could see the core and some of the outer regions, I hadn't seen M31 for a while so that was nice. Whilst still using the 24mm I sweeped throught the summer triangle in order to find M27, once found I switched to my 11mm ES82 @ 44x which framed the Planetary nebula nicely. I could make out the shape of the dumbbell with averted vision and also see the neb on axis just with less shape, the thing I especially liked about this little scope was the super sharp stars surrounding this slightly fluffy ghostly nebula, the contrast in the sharpness between the two types of object added to the experience, not quite a 3D effect but heading that way.

If I get the time and skies I will try and give it a whirl for a spot of imaging, but with twins about to be born I'll have to see about that? if I don't get time I'm very pleased with it for a quick grab and go high def scope

Chris

[Mukv]

Congrats  this is the cherry on the cake from what started as a glum thread.

Andy

[Nibor]

Jeez, that was a tense read! Glad it's sorted. 

I'm guessing the guy you bought it from wasn't an SGL member! 

+1 for a tense read!!! - very pleased the issue was sorted and a great outcome thanks to SGL members!! - A great forum!!

[mdstuart]

I enjoyed reading this thread.

+! on SGL being a great place for getting help with so many issues.

Glad the scope is producing sharp views..

When will we see some images taken through it!

Mark

[Chris]

When will we see some images taken through it!

Mark

 I need to do it soon because our identical twin girls are likey to be born in the next couple of weeks! I have a feeling they will keep us busy for a while, especially combining them with our high octain 2 year old Having said this I'm determined to get at least one decent image with it this year even if I hallucinate through sleep deprivation I've even bought a starsharp mask for it so I must mean business

If all elese fails I've got a great little grab and go to stick on my AZ4 for quick 20 minute sessions with a nice set of EP's

[russ.will]

Yes you have.

Russell