Paul Haese
01-03-2020, 08:35 PM
It has been quite a few months since buying a seven year old second hand AG12 from a mate. Over the months I have been going over various tests to determine the abilities and flaws of this particular scope. I am happy to report that this scope was not only well made but also actually works well. My thinking initially was that this scope would be fitted with a SBIG Aluma 694 and as a duel use an SBIG STXL11002 for wide field work. Whilst the other AG12 I own is fitted out with a QSI683, might might eventually have the Aluma 694 installed on that when the driver issue is sorted.
The Aluma driver is not working with CCD autopilot 5 to allow initialization for automated imaging. So I set out sorting out the STXL11002 side of the operation. With the help of Joshua Bunn making a few adapters for me again (Quality work again) I have switched focusors for each scope (I have an FLI Atlas and a Moonlite NiteCrawler 30, the Atlas is now on the new AG12). Using the Wynne corrector which came with the 7 year old scope proved to be a good idea because it actually works. Unlike the one I got with the AG12 I bought a couple of years back (despite Stefan's best efforts to remachine the parts of the corrector) which has optical issues. The Nitecrawler 30 unfortunately cannot house the AG12 Wynne corrector due to it being the same diameter. I have included a pic of the scope and camera in the dome observatory.
With a bit of tweaking over the last couple of weeks I am now approaching a point where I am happy with the scope. There is still some slight tilt present which needs another shim but this image shown at full resolution demonstrates it is nearly fully operational. Though I could probably work with what I have got so far.
edit: Link removed
Exciting times and now to start picking imaging targets for this system.
The Aluma driver is not working with CCD autopilot 5 to allow initialization for automated imaging. So I set out sorting out the STXL11002 side of the operation. With the help of Joshua Bunn making a few adapters for me again (Quality work again) I have switched focusors for each scope (I have an FLI Atlas and a Moonlite NiteCrawler 30, the Atlas is now on the new AG12). Using the Wynne corrector which came with the 7 year old scope proved to be a good idea because it actually works. Unlike the one I got with the AG12 I bought a couple of years back (despite Stefan's best efforts to remachine the parts of the corrector) which has optical issues. The Nitecrawler 30 unfortunately cannot house the AG12 Wynne corrector due to it being the same diameter. I have included a pic of the scope and camera in the dome observatory.
With a bit of tweaking over the last couple of weeks I am now approaching a point where I am happy with the scope. There is still some slight tilt present which needs another shim but this image shown at full resolution demonstrates it is nearly fully operational. Though I could probably work with what I have got so far.
edit: Link removed
Exciting times and now to start picking imaging targets for this system.