Rosette Nebula with Askar FMA180

[Gnosis]

I bought an Askar FMA180 about a year ago and was disappointed to find that it rattled when I shook it. Sure enough, image quality was awful. I found that the lens retaining ring in the reducer hadn't been tightened sufficiently and the lenses had enough space to shift around within the housing. I put the unit aside when my Askar 65PHQ came along, it being a great performer with no such issue, wondering whether I'll ever get any use from the FMA180.
 

But a few nights ago I used an unscheduled appearance of clear skies to try fixing the scope. I tried taking a few shots, then disassembling it in order to reposition the lens elements, tightening it back up, reassembling it, installing it back on the mount, and taking a few more shots. Rinse and repeat.
 

The gods were looking on me with favour, because after three attempts at this random lens realignment effort I managed to get something looking pretty decent. Once satisfied the scope was about as aligned as I could get it, and with morning fast approaching, I grabbed some SHO data (unfortunately under an almost full moon not far from the nebula) and produced the attached image. I'm pretty pleased with the result, especially after seeing the horrible results the scope produced out of the box.

High res version and technical details here.

 

[Scooot]

That’s a smashing image. It looks great with this fov.

[LaurenceT]

Novice question from another (somewhat confused) FMA180 owner.....

were you using the Askar 65PHQ as guidescope for that image ?

[Gnosis]

On 10/12/2023 at 07:17, LaurenceT said:

Novice question from another (somewhat confused) FMA180 owner.....

were you using the Askar 65PHQ as guidescope for that image ?

I was indeed. Expensive guide scope but the stars are pin sharp right to the edge of my tiny guide camera sensor! 😆

[Gnosis]

On 30/11/2023 at 08:23, Scooot said:

That’s a smashing image. It looks great with this fov.

It does. I'm looking forward to shooting some objects with some deep space around them.