Someday I'll have to figure out how to pretend I'm single even though I'm married with children. In the meantime, instead of going to Fremont Peak on Saturday nights, I set up my 12.5" in the driveway, and look at what I can. Last night, it was Hale-Bopp and Mars.

A word of introduction about the scope in question, which will hopefully provide some amusement. The 12.5" f/4 primary is apparently B stock from Cave, purchased by my late (and sometimes accursed) father-in-law in 1978. This should start sounding warning bells already. It was originally intended (we think) as a Dall-Kirkham Cassegrain. At least, it has a hole in the center and when I received the mirror it was severly undercorrected (~70%). I have since re- figured it (another story entirely, perhaps of interest to those who you who make telescopes) and built a telescope, which is, of course, not yet finished. So it has problems. The tube slides in the mirror box, making observations much above 45 deg altitude challenging ;-). And of course there's a hole in the center of the mirror. Ever try collimating an f/4 without being able to get a reflection back from the center? If anyone has any ideas on making the process less painful, let me know.

In spite of all these problems, I do actually manage to use the scope occaisionally. Such as last night. I pulled it out of the garage to do another round of collimation. After getting Sirius in view, a few rounds of star testing and knob tweaking got me a bit closer than I was Friday night. I then waited for Hale-Bopp. At 6:45 (or so) it showed up, and the scope did not disappoint. Three hoods easily visible at 63x (20mm "EDSCORP" Erfle (I'm assuming Edmund? It was inherited)). I tried 180x and got more detail but no more hoods. The inner hood appeared to be connected back into the pseudo-nucleus at all magnifications attempted. At this point the not-quite-three year old wanted me to join him in watching "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" so it was back inside for me.

After sending the little one to bed, it was back out for Mars. Friday night a combination of poor seeing and poor collimation made any detail on Mars purely a matter of imagination, fatigue and any additives one might consider. Last night at 180x I saw for the first time (in my scope, at least) Syrtis Major and the South Polar Cap. I was so pleased that I dragged my wife out to have a look. Of course, the amusement factor sets in again, as Mars is high enough in the sky that I have to hold the tube in place while my wife tries to get a glimpse of a planet dashing through a 13' field.

Now to go fix that slipping tube.