Well, a bit of a saga seems to be coming to an end!
I received my ASA 16" f3.6 newt back in April and stuck it on the DDM85 I had in my dome. I'd bought the mount here on ice in space and there had always been some questions about it, but once the 16" was mounted there was no doubt it had serious issues. So back to Austria for the mount, where a few bearings, connectors and suchlike were replaced and it has returned and is working perfectly. Except for a few issues around Win10's propensity to update drivers that pretty much requires a weekly ritual of going through and deleting and rolling back things even though you told Win 10 to never do this! Not the sort of thing you expect to do for a $20,000 mount, but to be fair, it's the astonishingly crap OEM software that causes the issue!
Anyway, once it was all back in the dome and cheerfully whizzing about under full control without hitting things, dropping USB ports, and other irritating symptoms the weather rolled in for five bloody weeks.
But last night everything worked. And I got a few hours on the Trifid. Minimal processing because I've forgotten how to do it.
Anyway, if anyone would like more detail on what these ASA thingys are like to live with, let me know and I shall post an honest review.
cheers
Andrew.
You gotta be happy with that. Beautiful first light!
Are you going to get a corrector for the edges?
H
Hi H - there's a 3" Wynne corrector in there already, and as far as I can tell it's doing a pretty spectacular job! I've also got a Barlow corrector that will swap in and give me about 3m focal length.
Cheers
Andrew.
Which version of Autoslew are you using? I don't use W10 - W7 is safer - but I understand that the driver problem has been fixed .... others, though not everyone, had similar problems with W10.
Regarding the Barlow corrector, if you are using a 16200 size sensor or larger, you will need to crop the edges - it only has ~28mm image circle. I have managed to push mine out to ~35mm by fiddling the backfocus, but focusing becomes a bit of a nightmare!
An excellent and natural looking Trifid image Andrew ...certainly better than my first light with my ASA N12 all those years ago . Good to hear that you sound like you have the new system sorted, it is certainly a very capable outfit, I look forward to the images to come
Nice first light, Andrew! The jet and small pillar aren't terribly visible. Is that down to poor seeing?
Cheers,
Rick.
Hi Rick,
They're pretty clear in the subs - so they've probably been hit by overzealous stretching. I managed another few hours last night with the AF working, so hopefully I can bring them back.
Cheers
Andrew.
An excellent and natural looking Trifid image Andrew ...certainly better than my first light with my ASA N12 all those years ago . Good to hear that you sound like you have the new system sorted, it is certainly a very capable outfit, I look forward to the images to come
Mike
Thanks Mike - my only criticism so far is the commonly repeated one around software and support, but the OTA arrived in perfect shape, and holds focus and collimation very well. The mount has some unusual 'features' but can deliver exquisite accuracy when everything works.
Cheers
Andrew.
They're pretty clear in the subs - so they've probably been hit by overzealous stretching. I managed another few hours last night with the AF working, so hopefully I can bring them back.
That's good, Andrew. I'd expect great resolution from that 16" once everything is dialed in.
Thanks Mark, it's a QSI683 with the 3" Wynne at the moment. I only went for the Barlow because I'm going to try some time-lapse planetary imaging through it.
I've got the most recent copy of autoslew, but only recently has Win 10 taken to updating the FTSI USB drivers. I had a year while I was using this mount with my 10" Meade without a single drama. Typical!
Quote:
Originally Posted by markas
Hi Andrew,
Great first light!
Which version of Autoslew are you using? I don't use W10 - W7 is safer - but I understand that the driver problem has been fixed .... others, though not everyone, had similar problems with W10.
Regarding the Barlow corrector, if you are using a 16200 size sensor or larger, you will need to crop the edges - it only has ~28mm image circle. I have managed to push mine out to ~35mm by fiddling the backfocus, but focusing becomes a bit of a nightmare!
That'll teach me to look at my computer screen without my glasses.
H
Quote:
Originally Posted by alocky
Hi H - there's a 3" Wynne corrector in there already, and as far as I can tell it's doing a pretty spectacular job! I've also got a Barlow corrector that will swap in and give me about 3m focal length.
Cheers
Andrew.
A great result! Looking forward to seeing more, from what is clearly a top-shelf piece of kit.
Thanks Peter, It wasn't an easy decision and I've only gone the ultra-fast route because I have a suspicion it will help with the light pollution. Fortunately you've already show what can be achieved even under the city lights.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley
Congrats Andrew and well done on overcoming the gremlins.
A fabulous first image and I am also looking forward to more to come.
Greg.
Thanks Greg, I'm hoping to be able to get some quantity and quality data now!
That'll teach me to look at my computer screen without my glasses.
H
Had me worried for second The corrector has almost as much glass in it as my Takahashi FSQ, and it's supposed to deliver stars smaller than my pixels out to 50mm!
16"@ f/3.6.....awesome!
. Good to hear that you sound like you have the new system sorted, it is certainly a very capable outfit, I look forward to the images to come 
