Over the past months I have had to re-evaluate my imaging set up which has resulted in me getting an AstroTrac TT320X-AG. This has come due to a number of factors, firstly I only have a small garden 3.5m x 8m so setting up either the LX200 or ETX105 takes up alot of space, secondly the area that I live in suffers greatly from light pollution not only from a street light at the end of the footpath at the end of the garden but also my local train station. Admittedly the street lighting has been changed to the new low energy lamps which greatly reduces the Sodium sky glow but now I have a broad-spectrum light that floods the garden. Imaging with either of the telescopes the performance is not great because of the light pollution.
Much earlier this year I performed a number of tests piggy-backing my Modified DSLR camera which now has a CLS-Clip filter to the ETX105 and I was very surprised with the results.
So last Friday the AstroTrac arrived and I must say I am very impressed. The build quality is fantastic and setting up could not be easier. Polar aligning is a very simple and quick process, upon looking through the polar scope you are presented with an illuminated reticule which can be dimmed if required.
I have carried out some very brief tests however with rain forecast I decided to only take a few images. I look forward to our hopefully clear winter months where now I may finally be able to get some fantastic imaging done.
