First light Takahashi Epsilon 180ed - M45

[tooth_dr]

I got the ferry and drove through Scotland and into England with one of my kids last week to collect this scope.  It was a great road trip with my middle daughter, where we covered around 400 miles.

I had to make a modification to my EQ6 - fitting a Losmandy head.

I made and added rings for a finderguider, and added a plate to attach the hub to the OTA.

I got it set up rather rushed on Sunday morning with the intention of using it that evening.  The clouds stayed away and although the guiding was poor in DEC (due to I assume poor balance - I need to rotate the tube a bit I think), I got a load of subs.

All the subs were 300s, which looking at it may be too long for this scope as all the star are completely overexposed!!

I plan to have the camera positioned 180 degrees to where it is now, but this will require modifying the Losmandy plate.  It's forecasting rain this week, so an ideal opportunity to fine tune these things, and tidy up the wiring.

The MHP worked flawlessly, and it is pretty cool being able to remotely switch 12v on and off eg the fan.

I couldnt get to grips with the Moonlite focuser and high-res stepper motor.  So I focused by hand.  With a critical focus zone of 10 microns this was a challenge.  TBH I didnt spend that long, and I use the diffraction spikes as a guide.  It's not completely in focus so I'll need to address the focuser, and get it set up properly.  I ran the autofocus routine in APT, but it didnt work as expected.  I'll need to check that the focuser is actually connected properly and working.

Here are the details:

Scope - Takahashi Epsilon 180ed, FL=500mm F2.8

Camera - QHY9 mono (KAF-8300)

Mount - Belt modded EQ6 Pro

Guider - SW Finderscope and ASI 120MM

Filters - Baader Luminance 2"

Exposure - 83 x 300s

Software - APT / APP / PS

 

Thanks for looking, any advice welcome.

Adam.

 

 

 

 

 

[JeremyS]

Great story and great first result!

Looks like you managed to travel on remarkably calm seas...

[Davey-T]

Congratulations on your purchase Adam, there are some excellent images around taken with the Tak' Epsilon, wish you many happy hours of fun with it.

Dave

[tooth_dr]

Just now, JeremyS said:

Great story and great first result!

Looks like you managed to travel on remarkably calm seas...

Thanks Jeremy.  I'm not much of a writer!  It was probably the calmest crossing i've been on both in and out.

Just now, Davey-T said:

Congratulations on your purchase Adam, there are some excellent images around taken with the Tak' Epsilon, wish you many happy hours of fun with it.

Dave

Thanks Dave.  It a bit of an investment, but for an imager its a dream.

[Davey-T]

Some super images around taken with the Epsilon by Maurice Toet and Mark Shelley among others.

Dave

[Craney]

Wow, scope of dreams... very interested to see your results Adam.     After wrestling my 10" quattro around the garden last night, maybe LESS is MORE.

With a full frame camera you should be able to get the entire Milky Way in the shot !!

 

[jjosefsen]

Nice scope and the initial results look promising!

I look forward to seeing your images with this little bad boy.

[tooth_dr]

1 hour ago, Craney said:

Wow, scope of dreams... very interested to see your results Adam.     After wrestling my 10" quattro around the garden last night, maybe LESS is MORE.

With a full frame camera you should be able to get the entire Milky Way in the shot !!

 

Thanks Sean. The 10” Quattro is a nice scope too.
I bought a Nikon D800E earlier this year and have a Tak-to-Nikon adapter so I’m just debating what direction to go. 

[tooth_dr]

1 hour ago, jjosefsen said:

Nice scope and the initial results look promising!

I look forward to seeing your images with this little bad boy.

Thanks Johannes.  I hope I can get the focuser working properly. 

[newbie alert]

Class Pleiades.. Class scope...looks like a winner

[Allinthehead]

That's a very promising start Adam. Congrats on the new scope. 

[Xiga]

Wowzers, congrats on the new scope Adam! All that aperture.... and F2.8! 😮

So does this hereby endeth the reign of the dual rig? My (probably bad) Maths says this will gather 2.5 times as much light as two 80ED's, but obviously with tonnes more resolution. Nice! 😎

[tooth_dr]

I found the luminance I took last year, around 8 hours, with the ED80 and same CCD sensor, compared with same exposure time for the 180ED, all in 300s subs.

 

[Laurin Dave]

That's what 5 times as many photons per pixel gets you.. brilliant.. literally!

[tooth_dr]

8 hours ago, Laurin Dave said:

That's what 5 times as many photons per pixel gets you.. brilliant.. literally!

Even with the dual rig I have, it's still 2.5 x faster

 

[tooth_dr]

More comparisons!

Single 300s subs from 1) ED80 40d 2) ED80 KAF8300 3) 180ED KAF180.

 

 

[Laurin Dave]

Like being at a Disco... not thatI  can remember !