My Astrotrac Advenuture

Its been a few months, but due to several things including the clouds I have been out very little.

This changed Friday, I got 3 hours of dark skies before a very bright moon came up from the east and sent me packing.

this was the first time I used my astrotrac visually, with the 72mm APO sweeping the galaxy fields of Virgo the astrotrac stayed dead on the targets. I am going to invest in the astrotrac head

This is one of several shots I took that night. Its M51.

This is 16 30 second shots, the same in darks and bias.

Deep sky stacker and processed in Photshop using the Doug German method that you can find on youtube

www.youtube.com/channel/UCvLpugEDmDVQr1JDptAsbQg

Well as some of you may know, after investing in an astrotrac pier and head deal, i managed to smash the astrotrac on Wednesday night.

its now in Bristol being repaired.

In the emantime i and some other Astrotrac owners have set up this facebook page for anyone interested.

www.facebook.com/astrotracon

So after the fun of lost parcels and several phone calls to a Bristol Parcel Force depot, my astrotrac arrives in Bristol a week after I sent it.

Dealt with the very pleasant Phill Jones @astrotrac, who had it fixed and back out to me same day.
The damage, popped out the barrel and opened up the sealed bearing plate. 130 euros repair, service and post back to me. Could have been a whole lot worse.

Astrotrac have IMO a very good aftersales service, very easy to deal with and very quick service.
Now I just need it back and a clear night.

I have ordered a TS80mm Quad APO from Ktech Telescopes and should have it in the next week. TS bench test all of their refractors before they send them out, so im very excited to see what this scope can do.

If anyone saw the 65mm Version of this at Cosmos, this is the big brother. There is a 100mm version but I think id be pushing the astrotrac with that one.

manic_dave wrote: I have ordered a TS80mm Quad APO from Ktech Telescopes and should have it in the next week. TS bench test all of their refractors before they send them out, so im very excited to see what this scope can do..

That's the end of summer, then

Asrotrac, check
New Telescope Check
ability to stay up until I gets dark - epic fail!

So I finally got the clouds to clear for a few hours, the moon to stay out of sight, manged not to smash any of my gear and got it all set up in the garden to test this scope and the pier.

few photos





of what it all looks like set yup below. and a test shot of M31