Swapped scopes: CarbonStar 150 & sorting out collimation

So I made a few changes to the setup recently. Swapped out my old Sky-Watcher 80ED Pro refractor for an Apertura Carbonstar 150 reflector, and finally upgraded my old Orion Starshoot guide camera to an ASI120MM mini.

If you’re curious about what else I’m running right now, I have everything listed over on my equipment page.

I was actually looking at a ZWO scope for a minute before buying this, but honestly I didn’t want ZWO to manufacture literally every single part on my rig. Wanted to mix it up a bit.

Going from the refractor to a reflector has been pretty wild though. This thing just gulps up light compared to the 80ED.

That said, collimation has been a pain. It’s definitely not like a refractor where you just clamp it down and start shooting. My first couple nights the stars looked awful around the edges, but after messing with it for a while I think I finally got the mirrors lined up right.

I’m still not sure what I’m doing with the old 80ED. It’s a solid scope and I have a lot of sentimental attachment to it since I started out on it, so I’m gonna hang onto it for a bit. Once the Carbonstar grows on me a little more I might sell it, but we’ll see.