Thoughts

Finally! I waited 3 months for my SVX130T-R to arrive safely in my hands. (Thanks Jon) Unfortunately, the timing was almost bang on Summer Solstice which at 55*N means a lack of darkness in the night sky. So another month goes by and things are looking a bit better. Even though we are only getting around 4hrs of 'useable' dark skies, it was time for the test drive!

The moon was out, big and bright, and humidity was very high of course but I wasn't going to be deterred. To be honest, I just wanted to run some tests anyway. It has been awhile since I created my T-Point model and checked polar alignment so that was first on the list since a new scope is on the Paramount. It all went off without a hitch and I had a newly generated 300+ point model with less than 6 arc/sec RMS pointing. I proceeded to make a small adjustment to the polar alignment and then I was off to collect some photons. I had decided earlier on the Eastern Veil Nebula in Cygnus, so I loaded the framing up in Voyager and ran the narrowband drag-script I have been using. A few hours later the sun came up and I had captured my first photons through the Stellarvue SVX130T-R!

I only had about 1.5hrs of data, so around a week later I was able to add another 3.5hrs to it. I am quite happy with the resulting image, please have a look. I did run into one issue though and that is that the stars are not 'perfect' in a couple corners of the full image. I've now had to dive deep into the world of adjusting 'tilt' out of the optical train. This isn't something I've had to do before but I'm learning a ton about it. I could just live with the image as is and crop 5-10% of the field but since this is my 'forever scope', I'm going to take the time to get it perfect. All in all, 100% satisfied with my change of scopes. Make no mistake, the Equinox 120ED is a GREAT telescope but the Stellarvue is a notch (or two) above. (as it should be considering the price) I'm looking forward to pushing the limits of this SVX scope over the next few years!