High clouds and high moisture content haze pretty much ruined last night. I
was
set up at the OCA 'dark sky' (yeah right!) site near Palomar Mountain. Me
and
APhrOdite my 130mm AP0, (why that name? Well AP = AstroPhysics, APO =
Apochromat, and because 'she sure looks *purdy*'
Honest, there was so much moisture content up at high altitudes that in URSA
Minor, only Polaris was visible. Jupiter and Saturn when view through her
had
blue fringing on one side and orange fringing on the other. One time, when a
brief sucker whole appeared, Saturn stood in stark contrast. The wide white
equitorial belt stood out clearly while the southern polar - midsouthern
equitorial region showed *several* subtle shades of brown or even bronze.
But
then the wind would kick up and it was just too much for the GM8 with the
big
white APO mounted, a MAXBright diagonal, 22mm nagler with 4x powermate
(189x).
Things were a bit better without the Powermate acting as a weather vane, but
not
much.
Gamma Andromeda split easily into two dancing dots. Even though conditions
did
not warrant, I went all the way up to 260x (16mm + 4x powermate = 50x/inch)
and
to be honest, so no image degradation at all on this lovely blue and
orangish
pair. Indeed when the winds stopped for a second or two, partial diffraction
rings would start to dance around. But then wind would coming howling back.
Finally as the time approached 8pm local(0400UT) I gave in. If I was going
to be
cold, and I've been up in the mountains when it's 20F no problem, I at least
ought be getting a good show. And I was not. The haze was getting worse.
To it's credit, the mount tracked perfectly though I did find out one of the
coil cords on the mount is NG. When hooked up to the RA motor, the motor
would
track just fine, but would chatter without moving if one tried to use a
slewing
speed. I swapped it with the DEC cord and all was well. Easily replaced. I'd
forgotten what a PITA an EQ mount can be to point. It'll become second
nature
after awhile I'm sure, but last night I was kinda comical at times trying to
figure out which was to swing things. Speaking of swing, anyone mount a
handle
on their OTA to grab when move the scope? I don't like my natural tendacy to
grab the drawtube and move the scope.
I would try again tonight, but right now the forecast looks about the same.
High
altitude clouds. A REAL 'quality' first light will have to wait till next
Friday
I guess. 8( Still, if I understand correcly, it's the first time APhrOdite
has
seen ancient photons in a couple of years.
A few questions. The screw on the draw tube is for providing friction on the
drawtube as well as locking it yes? It won't dig or score anything? I mean
the
focuser movement is SO smooth that any 2 inch eyepiece will cause it to
extend
on it's own.
Anyone figure out the Losmandy polar finder? I rotated it to get everything
lined up and put Polaris in the gap on the correct line. But that one step
in
the instructions about "the second brightest star..." made no sense. No
matter,
it tracked just fine for visual use as is.