I got myself a refractor!

[Ohan Smit]

So the lens arrived 

I will polish it before fitment tonight then hopefully get a gap in the maddening cloud cover that arrived ever so gracefully with the objective.

I can see the mentioned polish marks I was told of prior to shipping, not to shabby.

 Please find some lensporn if you will...

minus the reducer ring

Will report back once I can test performance 

Have a nice day

Ohan

[Highburymark]

This first light report better be good Ohan. You've put those of us following this topic through an emotional rollercoaster over the past couple of weeks. We need clear skies across South Africa, a stunning review of the scope, then finally we can have closure.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

That does look good. I hope looking through it gives even more satisfaction

[Ohan Smit]

This first light report better be good Ohan. You've put those of us following this topic through an emotional rollercoaster over the past couple of weeks. We need clear skies across South Africa, a stunning review of the scope, then finally we can have closure.

[xtreemchaos]

good luck mate and may your skys be clear.. charl.

[Ohan Smit]

good luck mate and may your skys be clear.. charl.

Thank you Charl

[Ohan Smit]

Last night was a complete no go 

Once I got back from my meeting the cloud cover was rather substantial   .

As soon as I can I will test

Have a nice day

[Ohan Smit]

Good evening fellow astronomers

I come baring interesting news.

a First light report of the “new” WO GT102:

This evening I arrived home and there was this very big open piece of blue sky with clouds in the far distance close to table mountain(which I can see from my porch) ;D. Even though seeing index 2 was at 1 with HAC of 72m/s O__O.

So without any delay I setup the EQ6 and took the WO out to cool, fitting the diagonal and eyepiece.

Thirty minutes later the sky was dark and I proceeded with a star test. With the 2.25x barlow and EP in place and pointed straight towards Hadar.

The telescope snapped into focus, very impressive

I defocus and set the EP to 8mm.

Lovely concentric rings, evenly illuminated and about 5 of them…

Single frame

Next I refocused the star and there was present a very well defined airy disc all around the star.

“Excellent”, I proclaim to my friend.

So then without further delay I navigated to Saturn.

First at 24mm just to grab the fellow, “gotcha”…

Tack sharp and well defined.

Upping the zoom and adding the barlow brought about the same stable and superbly well-defined view of Saturn I recall from the first (and only) night with the first objective a month or so ago.

Stable views of the Cassini division and equatorial storm band the whole time and I could really see the High Altitude currents moving and obstructing the view, really marvelous stuff.

So there I was, blown away by this “little gem”.

I was so flabbergasted my friend had to tell me: "Go get your camera dude", so I got the FFII68 and placed it with the D800 on the OTA.

Letting the FFII68 cool for about 15mins I then proceeded to shoot a star field test to see how well this field flattener works.

Unfortunately my T-ring’s grub screws where not tightly threaded and in turn my camera angle shifted slightly causing more than normal vignette on the bottom of the test shot.

4 second exposure at ISO 1600. High resolution link, there is some trailing since I wasn't properly aligned at all. This serves merely to show the perfomance of the FF68II. 

The clouds came rolling in after about 40 mins of tinkering...

Up close and personal

All and all I am very relieved and grateful to finally have the experience of a quality refractor.

I am fully aware now why a 4 inch APO scope is so popular.

Hope you enjoyed the report.

One last picture if you will 

Have a great eve

Kind Regards

Johannes

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Great first light, and I am very glad you finally got that scope sorted. Looks like a winner to me

[Zakalwe]

So pleased for you...hopefully you can put it all behind you and get on with enjoying the views.

[todd8137]

Wow lovely scope that chip would not cut it for me send it back and get a new one great write up

Pat

[happy-kat]

Yey brilliant to read

[Ohan Smit]

I am pleased to announce through horrid seeing and lots of cloud cover I present, the first lunar light for the new objective. 

Here is a picture with a little story

 

Waxing Crecent by Ohan Smit, on Flickr 

I was visited by a friend tonight and after he left and I saw him out, I looked up at the sky and saw a glow among  the clouds. Very surprise I went onto Stellarium to confirm that it is indeed the moon.

I then ventured out and took out my refractor(lens) telescope and tried my luck at the moon. 

This is a composite shot of two exposures. One was shot at 1/10th of a second to get the earthshine and some surrounding cloud cover.

The second was shot at 1/160th of a second exposure to grab the details of the crescent moon.

Nikon D800, WO GT102 @ 702mm, f/6.9 ISO 1600.

[damnut]

Congrats on getting everything sorted out Ohan, I can see you are going to have many sleepless nights. Look forward to seeing more of your images and excellent reports.

[Highburymark]

Well done sir

[Ohan Smit]

I made some adjustments to my WO OTA... 

Huzzah!!!