First Light CEM25-EC - 120s Unguided

[Adreneline]

After five weeks of waiting I was rewarded with a nice new iOptron CEM25-EC from @FLO last Friday. I can confirm there was no "may" about the possibility of enclosed clouds in the packaging - five weeks of patience was rewarded with 100% cloud cover.

After a rather frustrating 24 hours with the mount refusing to see the PC (I think a dodgy LynxAstro lead is to blame - an Amazon StarTech FTDI UART has sorted it) and a dinner commitment with friends that meant I didn't start to set up until midnight I was finally able to get 10 x 120s of Ha, OIII and SII of Sh2-129 - the Squid - not that there is any real evidence of said feature in this image. Clearly lots more data is required.

The main objective of the session was to try out the performance of the mount unguided using my Samyang 135mm and ASI1600MM-Pro. Accepting there is some distortion in the extreme corners of the image (this image only has edge effects cropped off) I am pretty pleased with the star shapes. I took a lot of care to ensure the mount was perfectly balanced. PA was eyeball method through the polarscope - no check with PHD2 of SharpCap, I just went for it.

So far I am very impressed with the CEM25-EC. Getting your eye on the end of the polarscope is not easy but it is possible. I would rather not have to connect to the PC via the handset but I'm sure I will get used to it. I love the fact it is no where near as heavy as my old NEQ6 so my ageing hands and back are much more comfortable lifting and positioning the tripod and mount assembly (less camera) when setting up. It is beautifully made and the feel and finish are excellent.

iOptron Commander will take a bit of getting used to but it seems to integrate well with CdC and SGPro. All in all this was a fairly minimalist first session in terms of software, equipment and wires - and data collected.

Once again, as we have come to expect, outstanding service from @FLO.

Thanks for looking.

Adrian

P.S. Hopefully I used all the enclosed clouds on the first night.

Edited September 8, 2019 by Adreneline
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[alan potts]

Very pleased all went well for you, I have told FLO where to put clouds and they clearly miss read the sentence and sent them to you as I have had about 35 days clear now and I have taken a delivery and expecting another, we actually need clouds and rain. Keep looking at these mounts and I have to say I am very tempted, it is just the 60 or the 120 I need to come to terms with.

Alan

[Adreneline]

18 minutes ago, alan potts said:

35 days clear

!!!!!!!!!

Well I envy you so much Alan. The most I've ever managed since taking up AP is four consecutive nights - clear and with no moon!

I need to repeat the test with the mount using my WO-ZS71+ASI1600 and maybe the ED80DS-Pro. If I can image without guiding then in theory I can stay within the payload limit for the mount, although to be fair I rarely use the ED80 these days.

The 60 and 120 look great to me but with what I use I don't need that sort of payload capacity or weight.

Good luck!

Adrian

[alan potts]

1 hour ago, Adreneline said:

!!!!!!!!!

Well I envy you so much Alan. The most I've ever managed since taking up AP is four consecutive nights - clear and with no moon!

I need to repeat the test with the mount using my WO-ZS71+ASI1600 and maybe the ED80DS-Pro. If I can image without guiding then in theory I can stay within the payload limit for the mount, although to be fair I rarely use the ED80 these days.

The 60 and 120 look great to me but with what I use I don't need that sort of payload capacity or weight.

Good luck!

Adrian

My worry about the 120, is I keep looking at the 12 inch SC and thinking de-fork, even though every man and his dog have told me don't do there. The 60 would be a cheaper option but maybe too small for decent work with the SC which weights about 17-18kg, which of course whould not matter with the CEM 120. What is is about this hobby that forever makes us want to part with cash.

Alan

[Adreneline]

3 minutes ago, alan potts said:

What is is about this hobby that forever makes us want to part with cash.

There are far worse ways to part with cash - and at my age you can't take it with you!

Enjoy while you can!

[alan potts]

1 minute ago, Adreneline said:

There are far worse ways to part with cash - and at my age you can't take it with you!

Enjoy while you can!

I found a way, asbestos suite cases.

[Jkulin]

Hi Adrian, I'm please to see that the 25 is working fine, I'm waiting for their new 25EC to come out shortly before I hit the button for my travel imaging.

I'm interested how you are managing to focus the 135 as I have one as well and how are you changing filters or are you using OSC?

[Adreneline]

On 09/09/2019 at 21:23, Jkulin said:

I'm interested how you are managing to focus the 135 as I have one as well and how are you changing filters or are you using OSC?

Hi John,

Sorry for the tardy reply - the SGL site rarely sends or gives any sort of notification when someone posts on one of my threads so I've only just seen your post.

I focus the 135mm with a SkyWatcher/HitechAstro focus unit. I tried manual but found it very difficult. I then progressed to a 3D printed mechanical solution but that was also tricky to use. I then made myself a stepper system but it required me to stand outside with the laptop. I'm now using the HitecAstro system and it workds very well.

I use the ZWO mini 1.25" EFW connected directly to the ASI1600. I previously used manual 2" filters which I think give marginally better results (less vignetting) but again require you to go outside to change filters. With the EFW I tend to image Ha, OIII and SII concurrently using SGPro otherwise I tend to end up with lots of Ha and no OIII or SII.

I am very impressed so far with the CEM25-EC. iOptron Commander takes a bit of getting used to compared with EQMOD but it all seems to work very well. After a careful polar alignment followed by a one-star alignment pretty well everything is dead-centre thereafter. I think I may well end up guiding as well (I'm pushing the limits at 300s) but at 120s and 180s everything seems very good for a light weight portable setup.

Apologies again for the delay in responding to your questions.

Adrian