Quick Mars and 130 P-DS first light

[bomberbaz]

Hello all.  Brief report below of the first light with new OTA and accompnying pictures

I received my long waited for 130 P_DS  and decided to ive it a quick whirl out. However biggest problem was the thin but plenty of murky cloud in the sky although there was also quite a bit of smoke from fireworks blowing through. A couple of pictures below of mars through the cloud. 

Not very good I know but I ws fighting with the exposure levels due to the murky cloud which was constantly changing in density.

Anyway, the main thing I wanted to try was the new PD-S OTA out using a ASI 224MC & meade 2x barlow. All stuck onto a SW GTI Wifi mount.

Given the conditions I am pleased with the above results but more over I love the P-DS. It really is a cracker for the cost and looks and feels like it should cost a lot more than it does.

 

[Knighty2112]

Some subtle details captured. Well done!  

[wormix]

How did you find it’s stability with the Az Gti?  I was considering one, but fear it may be a touch heavy so was considering modifying something like a skyhawk instead at 114mm

[bomberbaz]

2 hours ago, wormix said:

How did you find it’s stability with the Az Gti?  I was considering one, but fear it may be a touch heavy so was considering modifying something like a skyhawk instead at 114mm

It was quite breezy last night but it seemed quite steady, the two pictures above were made from stacks of 50 to 500 so it can't be that bad.

One thing worth pointing out is the tripod is now the 1.75 steel legged version and not the fairly basic one it came with. 

Also the mount is on a wedge and is flashed to EQ mode