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First light
While it's been bucketing down in Sydney, I've been busy.
I stripped down my NEQ6 (that I bought secondhand about 3-4 months ago). Gave it a thorough clean & re-grease. I was terrified I'd do something wrong and costly, but it's working much better now. Lovely and smooth, slews much quieter than before, and whatever it was that ruined every sub at 7-8 minutes is now gone. Hooray!
I also picked up an elderly 8" f/5 Newt (the old blue tube model Skywatcher) and took it completely apart. Removed and washed both mirrors, dis- and re-assembled the focuser, full collimation.
Lastly, I bought a new GSO coma corrector. What a pain in the bum fitting that thing turned out to be. Had to take a grinder to parts of the focuser to get it to fit.
Anyway! Delighted to show the first image I took with it. It's fairly rough but I'm pretty happy with it nonetheless; there were many opportunities for hamfisted me to ruin things beyond repair yet I somehow managed not to.
Next purchase will clearly have to be a guider because there's only so much I can do without.
30 x 40 seconds (unguided)
Nikon D600, ISO 1600
Lights only - no darks, flats or bias
Stacked in Registax, edited in Lightroom
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