What a frustrating evening!!!

[steppenwolf]

One of the problems with a dome observatory is ensuring that both the imaging 'scope and the guide 'scope have a clear view through the dome aperture. The larger the imaging 'scope, the harder this is to achieve at certain orientations of the system.

My largest imaging 'scope is my Skywatcher 10" Reflector and sometime I really struggle to get an unobstructed view but I love the F5 aperture and 1200mm focal length so what to do?

A good friend of mine has a Skywatcher 8" Reflector for sale and as I know its complete life history I am tempted to buy it but he has very kindly let me have it on long-term loan to evaluate it and last night was the first opportunity I have had to try it out.

Why the frustration? IT TOOK ME CONSIDERABLY OVER AN HOUR TO FIND MY ALIGNMENT STAR AND GET IN ON THE SENSOR Normally, I use my finder 'scope in these circumstances but, of course, I had not had a chance to collimate this with the 8" so it was useless. The next step would have been to grab a widefield eyepiece from the 'telescope room' but my Dad had come round for the evening for a meal and was sleeping in that room and I didn't want to disturb him ........ This was so frustrating that I found myself asking the usual 'astronomer's question' - why the heck do I do this

There is a happy ending though and it was interesting to compare this image with the one taken on Friday night with the 10" Reflector but I still wonder sometimes, WHY THE HECK DO WE PUT OURSELVES THROUGH ALL THIS?:-

[Beyond_Vision]

Another fine lookin M27. Looks like the 8" is a winner too.

Regards

Kevin

[steppenwolf]

Thanks, Kevin, I'm really torn over this. This 8" image seems to me to have a little more 'coma' at the edges but in some ways the stars appear to be slightly crisper and well formed in the centre of the image then they are on the 10" version. I guess this is all down to collimation .......

[rawhead]

Another beauty Steve

[LostNSpace]

May of been a frustrating night for you Steve but thats a cracking image......

Mark

[Sam]

That's a stunning image - very crisp and amazing colour - it may have been a frustrating evening but it certainly delivered the goods!

[Aza]

Sounds like a nightmare! Managed to get a great result though

[CELESCOPE]

lovely one Steve , just as good on the neb,as you say some coma there , but guess this can be overcome ,

lovely job od processing again

Rog

[SteelRat]

That's another absolutely beautiful M27 pic Steve. And I guess that's why eh?

cheers

Matthew

[FLO]

Very nice indeed 8)

[bazza]

Steve,

A beautiful M27.

Of the two, it's difficult to choose - both very good.

But I think this one 'nick's' it as it's so sharp and defined.

Barry.

[brendant]

Superb M27 Steve , well worth the effort, great job on the processing very natural colours and detail.

Brendan