The Needle: first light in a short night with Esprit 150

[gorann]

I had almost given up on my chances of trying my new Esprit 150 before astrodarkness will be gone from up here, but last night gave me the opportunity. Very nice and clear and surpisingly dark for about three hours. So here is two hours of first light with the Esprit (10 x 12 min at ISO1600). Guiding was bad (RSM around 1.5"), probably due poor polar alignment (the pillar has probably shifted a bit when the ground now has thowed out) and possibly some balancing issues since I put the Esprit next to my ES 5" refractor (which turned out to point at some random target...). I hope to collect another two hours tonight, but here is the real first light. Camera: Canon 60D (unmodded). The scope is fitted with the dedicated SW flattener.

The sky is a bit noisy since the air temperature was around 10°C - so not the subzero air that normally chills my DSLRs up here.

Cheers

Göran

EDIT: I uploaded a new version with less noisy sky

[johnturley]

Hi Goran

I have an Explore Scientific 127 mm FCD100 scope, and have been thinking about possibly upgrading to an Espirit 150, I would be very interested in hearing from you as to how you think the two scopes compare, in particular regarding performance on planets.

John

[Allinthehead]

Great first light and congratulations on the new scope.

[Barry-Wilson]

Congratulations Gorann on a very fine premium refractor and a tremendous first light!

Keep the results coming before your dark disappears!

[gorann]

2 hours ago, johnturley said:

Hi Goran

I have an Explore Scientific 127 mm FCD100 scope, and have been thinking about possibly upgrading to an Espirit 150, I would be very interested in hearing from you as to how you think the two scopes compare, in particular regarding performance on planets.

John

I may not be able to help you there since I only do deep sky. Also my ES is the older one with the cheaper ED glass. Its performance on deep sky is quite nice but it will be interesting to compare it to the Esprit. My plan is to have them sitting side by side.

[gorann]

1 hour ago, Allinthehead said:

Great first light and congratulations on the new scope.

Thanks Richard!

[gorann]

1 hour ago, Barry-Wilson said:

Congratulations Gorann on a very fine premium refractor and a tremendous first light!

Keep the results coming before your dark disappears!

Thanks Barry!

I have it set up for tonight - which surely will be the last until late August. It is now alone on the EQ8 and I will start with a proper polar alignment, so hopefully I can see its performance with good guiding.

[gorann]

It just struck me that this image was taken with a 4000+ GBP scope and a 300 GBP camera bought used on ebay.

[Allinthehead]

39 minutes ago, gorann said:

It just struck me that this image was taken with a 4000+ GBP scope and a 300 GBP camera bought used on ebay.

Why don't you use the Atik?

[gorann]

1 hour ago, Allinthehead said:

Why don't you use the Atik?

I wait with that one until the autumn when I have five or ten hours of imaging time..... The 60Ds (I have three of them) are little darlings that do what I tell them to do and without much noise