[Somnium (Aidan)]

so i finally picked up my AG Optical iDK 14.5 after some serious issues with the logistics company. the scope was packaged well and seemed to handle the trip just fine. it is a 14.5" f6.7 corrected Dall kirkham design with an optec Gemini rotating focuser. i have been preparing its arrival for a while so i had organised a MMOAG and all the appropriate adapters and spacers so as to be able to image ASAP. i laid the imaging train out on the carpet so you can see all the connections i had to make. and unbelievably, it worked. i was able to set it up and achieve focus on the first night. it is also the first time i am running a whole heap of new hardware, the FLI microline and CFW 2-7 is new along with the lodestar autoguider and the MMOAG. there were a few hiccups along the way but for the most part i sorted it out. unfortunately i was only at my observatory last night and will have to wait till next weekend (hopefully the clouds will clear up) to snap some first light images. i still need to do a bit of cable management and i need to sort out 1 driver issue. the only thing that remains an issue is the Thermal control system for the telescope. a dodgy connection means that the cable needs to be in a certain orientation to connect and even when i do the fans are not being driven when i turn them on. i will see what i can do about that otherwise i will have to send it back but at least it is a small component.

Also, i attempted collimation but stopped because i was getting strange results. when i put the laser collimator into the eyepiece holder, the dot bounced back on the collimator slightly off centre at about 5 o'clock. i wanted to make sure this was not the collimator itself so i rotated it and looked back and it was at 7 o'clock. i decided to test it out while having the rotating focuser rotate and watched the dot go from 5 -7 in a straight line. it didnt trace an arc like you would expect if the collimator was out of alignment, anyone with any thoughts on what could cause that???? i cant think of any so i didnt touch the collimation, i didnt want to make it worse.

overall first impressions of the scope and focuser are great, they both are extremely high quality and i cant wait to get some proper first light images.
Next weekend i will go down with some shorter cables to see if i can clean it up. i need to run a pointing model, and PEC and then it is first light !!!