Not my usually choice of target or level of quality but this wasn't a planned image. I spent a few nights adjusting the sensor tilt and as I finished each night Cygnus was up which was fortunate since I was in my bright B7 backyard. 

​​​​Dialing in the tilt was extremely easy thanks to the photon cage once I got a handle on the process. With a scope this fast the adjustments were already pretty small but they become even smaller the closer to flat you get. I got down to about 5% tilt before the adjustments become smaller than I can make by hand. I'd need a motorized tilt cage to improve but 5% is close enough as you can see from the ASTAP tilt inspector. 




Learning the collimation process was a breeze. I'm not a big fan of the Tak tool because it isn't as accurate as one would hope. Not surprising at all seeing as the sight tube crosshair consists of thread held in place by tape/glue that you have to install yourself. Even with a second set of hands to make sure the threads were tight while securing them to the tube, the crosshair still isn't truely centered and so collimation with the tool was better better than decent. I would expect this quality of tool 20 years ago but not in 2024.

Fortunately, and contrary to the narrative that is constantly perpetuated, the Tak tool isn't the only way to collimate the Epsilon. Having had great success with the OCAL v2 on my other Newt I purchased the OCAL v3 for the Epsilon and I couldn't be more satisfied with the result that it provides. With it I'm able to achieve excellent collimation repeatedly without the discomfort of having to stare down the focuser. 

I wrote in detail about using the OCAL with the Epsilon HERE
And with the ONTC HERE


With the way people talk about the Epsilon series I was expecting a lot of effort getting the scope ready for action but it ended up being the complete opposite. At the time of posting this I've gathered about 40 hours of data with the scope including 5 dark site trips and haven't had a single mechanical or optical issue. I'll never love the color of the tube though lol.