first light comparison M57: AP1200 vs CI700; wasM57 takes

by Richard Crisp


I just got the AP1200 week before last, got my AP portable pier at the end of last week.

I had to make my own pier struts because AP is out of stock on them for now, but I said ship the pier anyway, because I want to use my mount! The mount is 6 months old, bought it from a fellow in Alaska that went ahead and bought the thing when his number came up in the line even though he's moved on to Paramounts.

I am still resolving a few mechanical details, but the early reports are very good. I am getting pinpoints with my ST7E CCD camera where I used to get smears with my CM1400 used on the CI700. I was finding a bit of tracking error last night that was frustrating me, but at the end of the session I discovered that my Dovetail plate was a tad loose on the bottom of the scope. I'll tighten that today and try again tonight.

At the bottom is a link to an A/B compare between the old CI700 Mount and the new AP1200GTO mount. Note the AP1200 shot is "first light" and had a loose dovetail plate holding the CM1400 to the mount.

I had a shot of M57 done with the CI700 and so did the same target with the AP1200GTO. I agree with Jamie, that is a great target on an otherwise lousy night. And unlike M51, it has easy to find guide stars for us SBIG users!

I should add that the CI700 had minimum mass on it (14" OTA and CCD camera only), while the AP1200GTO had the TV101 piggybacked on top and the Van Slyke monster focus and VersaSlider on it, plus two 2" eyepieces. In short, the AP1200 was loaded down with a rather massive load.

Enjoy the pix!

http://y42.briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/rdcrisp/lst?&.dir=/ccd astro&.src=bc&.view=l&.done=http%3a//y42.briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/rdcrisp/lst%3f.dir=/ccd astro%26.src=bc