Moon 14.9% - C8 EHD First (Lunar-)Light - 20221226 1835

Hauling out the C11 on a moments notice, and be agile enough to move back in when an unforeseen shower would exceed the capacity of the cover, has proven to be too difficult in these last months. Just a couple of single occasions, where I nearly broke my back …

However, I wanted to have my chance at decent planetary imaging, but I was missing out on the focal length.

Since this summer, I tried a parallel track by using my TS102 Achro, mainly destined to be used for solar, for building up some experience on lunar and planetary. Stretching the limitations of the scope, going beyond the resolution by using a Barlow 2x and 3x, I had my first attempts.

In spite of some good results, the angle resolution of a 102mm diameter scope, was putting a hard limit

Until … well, it was Christmas time, so my excuse is that a ‘present’ was justified, and it was cloudy and raining already for weeks … so … with the speedy delivery of Teleskop-Express, I got myself a C8 EHD (OTA) under the Christmas tree.

I re-commisioned the material that was mounted in the C11, piggy-backed it with the RedCat (see previous post), and after building up the rig for 4 hours … skies cleared, just in time to test the new setup … hauling out the C8 rig, including the RedCat piggy-back was a ‘walk in the park’ compared to the C11

In parallel with the RedCat, first light of the C8 went for the crescent moon, with the ASI174MM mini (that was originally intended for guiding on the C11 - I didn’t want to use the ASI174 that was mounted on the TS102 solar rig)

4 panels captured, but something is going wrong in the processing with the 2 panels at the edge of the moon. Only the central 2 panels seemed workable for the PhotoMerge.

Frozen in time: 20221226 1835
C8 EHD, ASI174MM mini, UV/IR, EQ6-R Pro
1080p, 10ms G200, 210s, 50%stacked, 4 panels, 2 panels merged
AutoStakkert, PixInsight, Adobe PhotoMerge

Still, a decent start for this new scope … For sure, the road to lunar and planetary finally looks promising …

Clear Skies everybody! 🤩✨🔭

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