First Light sort of...

Freezing near Mt. Palomar

by Jeff Gortatowsky


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*' ), were setup by twilight. Both of us must have been a bit cold in the 10-20mph steady breeze with temperatures hovering around 40F, as we both shook a bit. 8)

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.