First Light Esprit ED80

[Retrograde]

I purchased an Esprit 80 from the IIS classifieds last year as a new wide-field imaging scope to replace the AT65EDQ. Of course the weather has been pretty terrible ever since & that combined with some other commitments means I haven't had the chance to get it fully dialed-in. Back-focus is kind-of new to me and I have some sensor tilt that needs solving - all of which is way more obvious at f5.

I tried the Hocus Focus aberration inspector (after getting mixed results with Astap) and it died with an exception error forcing NINA to close down. :shrug:

Anyway here is my first image from Bortle 7/8 with a very small amount of data. Some broadband with an Optolong L-Pro, boosted with a bit of narrowband from an Antlia dual-band filter.
I don't think there's anyone who doesn't already know what this object is. :lol:

Larger version here at Astrobin (https://www.astrobin.com/full/54ub3e/B/)

[strongmanmike]

Nice, looks like a successful preliminary to me :thumbsup:

Oh and I checked SIMBAD, TheSky and the UK Schmidt southern survey plate collection aaaand after some to and fro searching, I think it is NGC 3372 but I'm not 100% sure :question:

Mike

[Retrograde]

Thanks Mike - I already got some small spacers to adjust for the additional backfocus due to the filters, so I think I'm pretty close with backfocus. If only I could get HF aberration inspector to work. :(




Nothing gets past you Mike! :rofl:

[Dave882]

Gotta be happy with that! That’s a very tidy first light. Colour is great for shooting in b8. Great stuff!

[Retrograde]

Cheers Dave, much appreciated. :)

[RobF]

Nice shot - exciting times :)

[Peter Ward]

Nicely framed.
Great colour.
Excellent handling of shadows and highlights
Very tidy :thumbsup:

[Retrograde]

Thanks Rob! Yep - new optics are always exciting.




Thanks Peter. Appreciate your kind comment. :)

[Adriano]

Very nice image of the Carina Nebula!

[Retrograde]

Thanks Adriano!