The Iris Nebula (NGC 7023, Caldwell 4) is a bright reflection nebula in the constellation Cepheus. It is 1,300 light years away and 6 light years across. I bought a new scope with some money from cleaning up the garage and man cave but my mono rig was busy on my old scope and big mount with another project I wanted to complete (the Elephant Trunk Nebula). But I had good weather and a new toy. I looked around and realized that if I pressed an old laptop into use, all of the upgrades I had made to my imaging rig over the last year had left me with almost enough gear to assemble a second rig. A few clicks on Amazon and $60 and I was in business. It wouldn't be optimal, the mount is a little small for the setup, the guiding camera a bit marginal (it has always worked but a bit quirky), manual focus, old DSLR but I'd at least get to test the scope and check out how an FPL-51 doublet performs in RGB wideband (not my intended use). So I set it all up, brushed off my manual focus skills and let it run for 2 nights. A bit short on integration at 6hr 22 minutes and starting very low in the sky at 20* each night but I am pleasantly surprised. I bought this scope and reducer on sale for $740 US after taxes, imports, delivery etc. Very little blue haloing on bright stars, very easy to massage out in post. Very flat and well corrected to APS-C. Great build quality (on par with other mid-range scopes). Overall a very good value. Next will be a test with my Mono camera setup. For now the SharpStar 76 will get to ride to smaller mount again with my old faithful A6000.

Update; The CN challenge this month (June 2023) was the Iris Nebula, so I swapped my A6000 back on to the SVBony 102ED and was able to get another 2 nights of integration. I'm up to 12 1/2 hours but I think it could use more. This is a really challenging target to edit and there is so much dust that it becomes hard to know exactly what is dust and noise in the background. Here's my best shot at it.