[RyanJones]

Hi all,

This is first light for me for a couple of things. Firstly is my ZWO071mc. A significant step up from my entry level DSLR Canon 350d. As with anything new there is quite a learning curve. I think I’d pretty much gotten to the limits of the 350d and I’m now I’m right back at the start of a dedicated astro camera.

Coupled with the ASIair ( already part of my setup ) I really have no reason any more to physically “ look “ through the telescope. This leads onto the other changes in my setup. My camera now faces straight up/down out of my Newt focuser. With the various adaptors, MPCC and the focal point required, this positions the camera virtually on the RA axis. The difference this makes to the balance cannot be understated.

Whilst tinkering and testing during the day I discovered there is a lot of light getting into the tube and bouncing around on the flat black paint. This lead to my next change. After much research I decided to flock and baffle my OTA. I feel like I learned a lot through the process and all things being equal I think it made a reasonable difference. At least enough to justify the time and effort that went into it.

So after all that babbling, here is my first effort with this new setup. It was of a relatively faint region under full moon and although it has its issues I’m pretty happy with the result.

120x180sec @ gain 90
ZWO 071mc @ 0 Deg
8” f/4 Imaging Newtonian
Guided HEQ5 Pro

Thanks for looking

Ryan