Explore Scientific 102mm CF FCD100

Primary Mac Imager

The Explore Scientific ES102ED FCD-100 telescope was my first refractor, and was previously my main imaging workhorse before obtaining a slightly faster Esprit 100. Out of the box it's a 102mm (4") refractor, with around a 714mm focal length at F/7. I've added a StellarVue .8x reducer bringing the focal length down to 571.2mm, and F/5.6. This focal length works for a lot of small to medium sized nebula, and a few galaxies. The telescopes weight is 7 lbs as a carbon fiber scope, and allows me to add a fair amount of imaging gear to it without taxing the mount which is rated at 30lbs payload.

I took the plunge into mono just recently (see the blog post here). I've been very interested in getting into mono imaging for narrowband and LRGB captures. Light pollution is terrible where I live, and narrowband imaging is one way to get around that as light pollution has very little effect when using narrowband filters. I'm currently using a ZWO ASI1600MM-Cool camera, with the ZWO 8 slot electronic filter wheel and a full set of Astrodon LRGB, HA, SII, and OIII filters. For guiding I'm using a Stellarvue 50mm guide scope and a ZWO ASI224MC camera. A few of my newest images are posted to Astrobin.

Image gallery of astrophotography done with The Explore Scientific ES102-FCD100