M1 1st light with my new/old C8

[Comet Hunter]

So this image is not one I would send off for publishing, but its the 1st light of an older but new to me Celestron C8 (late 80's vintage). This image has only 1 1/2 hr (19-5min subs) with only a IR/Cut filter and the scope was out of collimation and had poor guiding as it was mounted to the HEQ5 which was really too small a mount for this scope, (which I later found this morning) was also out of balance to boot. Considering all that, I think this C8 will work as intended for Luner and Galaxy imaging down the road with all that other stuff addressed. I did add a ASI-EAF to it which helped focusing. The camera was the ASI533 mc. I now plan to get some Bob's knobs to help with star collimation on the fly!

With all that could have gone wrong with this imaging session, I was tickled pink to get anything recognizable!

 

[Jameel Hyder]

Nice result given all the challenges with the equipment. Good detail in the core.

 

[AlanLichty]

Quite the litany of things that went wrong but a very usable result in spite of that.

 

[JimFox]

This is so awesome! From everything I have read, using those Celestron SCT's can be a real pain to get dialed in. But you didn't let any of that stop you Ed, you worked through it and got it going! I like the result.

Do you use the ASIAir? I don't remember. I am trying to see how to Collimate without having a laptop.

 

[Comet Hunter]

This is so awesome! From everything I have read, using those Celestron SCT's can be a real pain to get dialed in. But you didn't let any of that stop you Ed, you worked through it and got it going! I like the result.

Do you use the ASIAir? I don't remember. I am trying to see how to Collimate without having a laptop.

Yes, I use the asiair. Checked star collimation on my tablet and saw it was off, but didn't want to fumble I'm the dark to try to fix it. Bob's knobs on the way. This will be a great help. The scope being so old I feared the worst that it wouldn't work at all for AP, so I was pleasantly surprised

 

[Mike Lewis]

Some impressive core details on this, very cool.

ML