First Light with the Sky-Watcher 80ED Pro

So only a few days after moaning about the bad weather, we actually had a couple of nights with clear skies. It was also about -5ºC across the two days so I felt a little bit cold when I was out trying to use my new Telescope and Camera.

As it was my first night out I decided to be boring and pick everyone's favourite target, M31, aka the Andromeda Galaxy.

So after setting everything up and getting on target (which took about 2 hours) I was ready to start imaging! I basically took 16 x 90 second subs at ISO 800. I failed to get any Darks or Lights as I was beginning to feel the cold and just didn't have the dedication to stick it out any longer.

I processed the image in Photoshop and whilst I know I lost a bit of data in the processing, I am happy enough with this first attempt.

You may notice there are some issues with the focus on the stars along the left hand side of the image. This is because I believe I had some issues in the optical train which resulted in my DSLR sensor not being square to the optical path. The reason was that I struggled to get focus so ended up setting up a very badly held together "botch" job.

Since taking this image however I have found a little extension tube in my telescope case which states "DSLR Adaptor" rather obviously on the side of it. This would have given me a much more firm extension system to help achieve focus. I probably should have checked it out first but I was just a bit keen!

New Equipment = Terrible Weather

So for Christmas I got some new Astronomy gear to play around with. I got permanent control of the Modified Canon 700D DSLR I had played with previously which is basically a Canon 700D with the IR filter removed to increase the sensor response to red light.

In addition, I also got a Sky-Watcher Evostar 80ED DS-Pro Telescope. This scope is a Apochromatic refractor which will provide me with a much wider field of view than my 127 Mak.

In addition to the wider field of view it is also a "faster" scope meaning that more light will get to my camera during an exposure than would do on the Mak.

For anyone out there who likes the official specs then here they are:

Diameter: 80mm
Focal Length: 600mm
F/ratio: F/7.5
Fully Multi-Coated Doublet Objective Lens
FPL-53 ED Fluorite Glass Objective Element
Backlash-free 2” Crayford Focuser

Now all I need is the chance to use it!