First light - WO Star 71

[Robp]

Hi all,

It was clear skies last night so I took the opportunity to get acquainted with my new scope, the WO Star 71.

As it has been a while since my last clear night I decided to just go for an imaging run.

Next time out I plan to do a little testing with my DSLR to make sure the field is ok.

Kit used:

HEQ5

Atik 314L+

WO Star 71

The first hour was spent getting everything sorted and then I settled in to my first target of the night, NGC 7380 (the Wizard nebula).

I managed to grab 8x1200s of Ha before the target entered the no go zone for me, a Street light.

I then focused my attention on a target I'd never dreamed of taking on with the 130pds, IC 1805 (the heart nebula).

I only managed 4x1200s subs on this target before the clouds rolled in, the start of my next mosaic.

Even though they both don't have a lot of data, I can already tell we are going to get along just fine 

[laudropb]

Very nice work. Thanks for posting.

[triton1]

You can certainly see where the Wizard got its name from,great detail and great capture well done.

[seo]

Nice, clear and sharp images. A very nice scope too, enjoy it !   

[swag72]

These look good - These scopes are like gold dust at the moment. A friend of mine has one on order, has been told that there are none in the UK and will have to wait until the end of the year probably 

[Mr Spock]

Really nice looking images. That scope does look like a cracker from all the images I've seen from it.

[Uranium235]

Seems a good way to get the most amount of sky out of a 314 and still get fairly decent stars!

I had my replacement 71 yesterday, I've set up a nice long dovetail bar for it (though had to sacrafice my dual vixen bar for it) and I'm just awaiting some clear sky tonight in order to test it all.

What did you do for a finderscope?

[toxic]

very nice indeed what a great maiden voyage

[Robp]

Thanks all.

Some of the smaller stars are a little square I think but the majority are ok. You only notice then if you zoom right in. It gives me four 130pds panels in one go so worth the trade on larger targets in my opinion. Should be better in RGB/OIII?

At the moment I'm using a finder/guider mounted on home made rings on top of the scope. I pop the guide cam off and put in the finder end and do a star allignment. Pop the guide cam back in and proceed.

Flo do some WO finder rings that I'll prob end up purchasing in the long run, think the go on the top side of the end near the focuser?

Good thing is with the finder guider on top and slightly forward it balances out the camera at the back quite nicely.

[Uranium235]

I ended up mounting my 71 upside down so I can use a long dovetail. However, I didnt think to try swapping over the guider and RDF. At the moment my guider is attached to the gold dovetail (which is now on top) via a vixen dovetail clamp that I swiped from my dual vixen bar (really easy to slide forward/back that way). So if I could mount the RDF on the other spare clamp (it will involve drilling an M6 hole in one of my spare synta shoes), I could probably create a quick-swap system for it.

Ahhh just got my first test sub back.... now then... thats looking much better!

[Anish]

Wonderful images, thanks for posting

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ultranova]

Nice images, looks like you have a great combination there,

Looking forward to seeing what that bad boy can do

well done

Paul