First Light - Tak FS-102 & AP Mach1GTO

[DavidTrap]

Dear All,

After a frustrating week or two, I finally managed to get my new setup out into the night sky and try a bit of imaging.

I did a quick run through with K3CCDTools to sort out the polar alignment and then tried out the guiding with PHD - pretty much a flat line, certainly less than +/-1 line on the graph (which I assume means <1 pixel movement) - guiding camera is a StarShoot Autoguider - scope is a WO 70mm ZenithStar, 420mmFL.

I focused using a Bahtinov Mask on a bright star and then setup a run on Eta Carina with an unmodified Nikon D200 - 5 x 5min subs, 3x 5min darks and 5x flats. These are shot through the Tak Focal Reducer, bringing the scope back to ~f6 & FL~600mm.

I then dumped this through DSS and adjusted levels and a quick curve in PS.

I haven't tried to process this any further - far toooooooooo tired.

I'm happy with the round stars, and will try to extract some more depth from this in the morning...

Thanks Chris for selling me such a fine scope.

Cheers
David T

[strongmanmike]

Great start Dave

New equipment that works...priceless :thumbsup:

Mike

[Hagar]

Nice starting image David. Sounds like a very nice imaging rig, now to make it sing.

Well done.

[DavidTrap]

Thanks for the comments Gents - I'm pretty stoked with the results so far!

I've had a bit more of a fiddle this morning - full size image at

http://users.tpg.com.au/dctrap/astrophotos/etacarina.jpg ~2Mb

Cheers
DT

P.S. Let me know if the link doesn't work - first time I've tried this trick.

[cohiba]

Hi Dave
Picture look great glad to see your happy with the gear.