Celestron RASA- First light tests

[pyrasanth]

I received my Celestron RASA today kindly shipped by them great dudes at FLO- Thanks Steve & gang.

I packed up the Celestron C11 Edge on the Paramount for safe storage & mounted the RASA. Sadly it is going to be cloudy tonight but I did snatch this image of the moon on an Atik 490 OSC at 1/1000 of a second. This was the only object I could see to check optics & focus. The moon was covered in very thin cloud but it looks like the optics are really razor sharp & I can't wait for a starry sky to refine the focus.

The OTA will need a plate solve as the SkyX put the moon in the top quadrant of the CCD & I did not move the moon manually to center hence the cropped moon. The plate solve will be very fast as I  I might get 8-10 magnitude in about 2 seconds!

I will let you know how I get on. I've ordered the RASA light pollution filter as I don't like the colour cast  which presents itself when using the IDAS LP2.

Clear skies to you all!

[Demonperformer]

Sounds as if you have some exciting times ahead with the new scope. I look forward to seeing some of your DSOs when you get some clear skies.  Hope you get them soon.