FIRST LIGHT

We were a little hesitant to entrust our cameras to the single thumbscrew lock when using them with a nosepiece. With the temperature dropping through our imaging session we checked focus every few exposures, and had to slightly adjust it each time. Movement using the right-hand coarse focus knob was stiff and jerky, whilst the left-hand knob was loose and completely ineffective. Thankfully the fine-tuning control was working properly. With so much attention given to the rest of the telescope, it seemed slightly odd to have had issues with the focuser; it did not appear to have been correctly set up.

With pictures in the bag we replaced the camera with our eyepieces and enjoyed a few hours of observing. Our target list included planets and faint galaxies, the high contrast of the optics making it possible to pick out some detail in the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) and good resolution in globular clusters M13 and M3.

At times during the observing session we noticed a little flaring in the stars. Checking back on the photos we had taken revealed that on some of them there was the same issue. We also noticed that within the tube there is a bright brass component of the focuser that has not been blackened, which could cause unwanted reflections.

Aside from those niggles, the Omegon AP 104/650 ED offers impressive views and pictures in a well-made and well-presented package.

The Orion Nebula, stacked from 150 30-second frames that were captured using an Atik 460EX colour CCD

The Monkey Head Nebula, stacked from 30 10-minute exposures (left), and the Pleiades, stacked from 24 10-minute captures (right), both taken with an Atik 460EX colour CCD