Sunday, December 19, 2010

AT6RC First Light

After 4 months on back-order, my new AT6RC finally arrived. I built an adapter to attach the LXD 650 mount to the observatory pier, and got everything set up in time for tomorrow's lunar eclipse. We'll know more about how the scope performs on star fields in a couple of weeks, after we get past the full moon. Meanwhile, here's a single exposure of the moon one day before full:



Heritage Park Observatory, Cedar Park, TX
Exposure: 1/100 second (0.01)
Camera: Modified Canon Digital Rebel XT (350D)
Scope: AT6RC, AT2FF field flattener
Mount: Meade LXD 650
Guider: None
Filter: None
Software: Nebulosity, Photoshop

7 comments:

Phil said...

Very nice!! Is the field flattener a necessity for this scope?

imjeffp said...

I don't know yet. I only got one extension, so I may not be able to reach focus without it anyway. I figured since I already had the flattener, why not?

AmbroseLiao said...

Wonderful indeed. May I ask what ISO you were using on the dSLR?

imjeffp said...

ISO 100. Ansel Adams said, "The Moon is a sunlit object. Expose accordingly."

AmbroseLiao said...

Thanks Jeff. Did you get any shots of the full lunar eclipse on the 21st?

imjeffp said...

We were clouded out. I was able to watch the first part through a moving cloud layer, but we were obscured about the time totality began.

AmbroseLiao said...

I was lucky enough to see it, but it was VERY COOOOOLD!