ES 0.7x reducer with TSA120

[casstony]

Crappy conditions but I got to test the Explore Scientific 0.7x reducer/flattener with my TSA120 between clouds tonight. No guiding, just did a go-to Hadar and got a short exposure with a 600D.

I've included the four corners at original resolution. Seems like it will work well when I get some clear weather.
At the moment I've just got a 2" nosepiece for the reducer but that's ok for APS-C. Apparently Moonlite (among others) can make up adapters to mate the ES reducer to a 3" FT.

[Camelopardalis]

Looks pretty darn good Tony :thumbsup:

[casstony]

One issue with the supplied adapters is that there's no allowance for mounting a filter, but I found a simple work around. The inside of the T-adapter has a recess just slightly larger than a 2" filter; the filter can be dropped into the recess and held in using two or three pieces of self adhesive felt.

[wasyoungonce]

Tony I gotta say I'm surprised it works with the TSA as ES really had issues making this and its optimised for the 152mm scope. A few users with the 127ED say it doesn't fully correct to the corners but your images look pretty damn good.

Because it's working so well....I'd say the 3" FT would be better bet to reduce vignetting. That said...the reducer was optimised for APS-C so maybe this would be an overkill!:shrug:

Well done.

Brendan

[casstony]

Hi Brendan, I will eventually get an adapter for the FT, mainly for the security of the fitting. I might also get an M48 adapter for the camera side to allow for full frame in future.

I tried the ES reducer with my FLT98 last night and it produced eggy stars as expected. I'm going to get some T thread spacers to see if I can fix that. If I can make it work I'll have an f/4.4, 430mm scope which I'll then compare to the Esprit 80.

[wasyoungonce]

mmmm F4.4...yum!;)