ST-8300 First Light

[Apoman]

Hi All,

First Light on my new SBIG ST-8300M from suburbia.
Scope :AP130 EDFS F6 with Losmandy GM200 mount.
Guiding : Borg 77mm and QHY5

Images of M8, M20 & M104 taken about 6 weeks ago with the assistance of my mate Andrew.

All 10 x 2min Lights with Darks.
Used CCdsoft, Deepsky stacker and played around with Photoshop CS2(Still learning).

Looking forward to my new FW5-8300 Filter wheel with baader filters.

[Hagar]

Nice start Peter. You should have a lot of fun with this sort of rig and should produce some very classy images. I would suggest you extend the exposure time out a bit and you will have a lot more data to work with. You also need to concentrate on getting your focus spot on and the stars will shrink a little more also.

Well done.

[Apoman]

Hi Doug.

I will definitely try longer exposure times on my next
imaging session. Focusing was a bit tricky and I certainly need to spend some more time in getting better focus.
Thanks for your input.

Cheers,
Peter.

[Lester]

Hi Peter, they all look very nice images to me. That is a great start.

[Bolts_Tweed]

Gday Peter

You are going to have a ball with this set up - I use a ST8300M on an AP130 EDT (f7.5) with Astrodon E series filters. I continues to amaze me what it is capable of - the ST8300 makes the 5 inch punch well above its weight.

I found manual focus is tricky with the AP focusers because they are so good - seems oxymoronic. All i had to do was touch the focuser knob and think about turning it and focus would shift.

I've put a Moonlite on the AP which will allow autofocus with FocusMax. Yeah - its almost vandalism but I still have the AP focuser to stick back on it if necessary. Im waiting to get the scope back - (A mate is machining a flange to take the moonlite - it was a Synta flange) but I have found this method to be extemely good and repeatable on other good quality Apo's. Will report on performance when I get it back.

Anyway mate well done and get ready to have some fun.

Mark Bolton

[multiweb]

Top gear! :eyepop: Bit clipped in the process but you've got some seriously nice toys to start with. Looking forward to more.

[dcalleja]

Nice start. I have the 8300C version and very happy with it

[Apoman]

Guys,

Thanks for all your input.
I am very happy with my choice of the ST-8300M, I think its a good match with my AP 130.

Next up some longer exposures and need to work on my processing.