Here we have an image of, yes you guessed it, the Pleiades. I have been working on this one for several days at the tail end of the evening after my primary target passed below the altitude I needed.

I chose to do this because it is familiar to me and I'm using this small and extremely well priced refractor to see see how it performs. I purchased the Apertura 60mm a couple of months ago but had difficulties with the flattener/reducer. This telescope is manufactured in China by, I believe Sharpstar, and is sold here in the US in re-branded versions, by Apertura, William Optics and AstroTech.

So once I got the flattener/reducer thing sorted out with the arrival of a new one, I wanted to see if this could be used for wider field stuff or as a travel instrument or if it was simply going to be a guide scope when imaging at longer focal lengths. Mechanically, the telescope is quite impressive. I do not have a single complaint. I fitted it with the EAF automatic focuser and mounted this on a Losmandy bar on top of my C9.25. Easy to balance and very compact, I was anxious to try it out with a small pixel ASI183 and see what comes of it.

From the perspective of using it in the field, it is a great little scope. However, the jury is still out with regard to performance. I was able to achieve what appeared to be good focus and the NINA HFR stats agreed and when I processed the image, found that my stacks had FWHM well under 3.0 But I was really disappointed with the quality of the stars. There are some strange diffraction artifacts and I am getting what I call the "Pepsi Can" effect with regard to the star color, i.e. blue on one side and red on the other. I do not believe it is a tilt issue as everything is screwed together nor do I think it is a camera issue as I have used the ASI183 with success on the C9.25.

So the plan is to call Highpoint Scientific and see what they have to say. Perhaps it is an alignment or collimation issue or perhaps it is simply the limitation one will bump up against when using an instrument in this class. In any case I hope I can sort it out as I really like the scope mechanically and I like doing this kind of wider field imaging.

I hope you like it and considering the relatively low altitude of the subject and with those bright star artifacts notwithstanding, I don't think it is a bad one at all.

CS and be well.

PS... upon further investigation, I believe the diffraction patterns in the bright stars are the result of some clips in the aperture cell. The recommended fix is an aperture ring. So I guess I will try that!