Double first! (first 'light' with the EQ8R Pro and first attempt at off-axis guiding)

[StuartT]

New EQ8 arrived last week as did an off-axis guider. Never tried either before and of course they arrive just at the worst time of the year for astrophotography! But I figured I should be able to test both out with only astro twighlight, so I stayed up late last night and can report success on both counts 😃

The mount is really great! Even unguided I can get at least 60s exposures with round stars. It also slews super accurately. The Esprit is a long scope and I used to find that slews on the EQ6 were quite a way off target and then NINA would take a number of platesolves before it was happy. But the EQ8 goes right to the spot.

My OAG is working too (there is a little dark patch on the bottom, so I need to move the prism out a little). Managed to get it focused and found a guide star no problem. Then ended up getting 0.25" - 0.35" guiding.

One of the very rare nights when you think to yourself "how come this is just all working? Why hasn't something gone wrong?" 

Picked a random target just for testing purposes, didn't really expect to get a great image. So didn't bother with any calib frames. Just 50 mins on the Crescent Nebula

 

Edited June 2, 2022 by StuartT