I arrived just after sundown at Montebello. Rich, James, and Steve were already there. High clouds were eveident but it was actually looking a little better than earlier so I set up the C11.
I have done some work on it in the last month or two and was very interested in trying it out. The first item on the list was flocking the interior and relubing the primary slider. I also aligned the secondary and moved it to one side of the corrector to obtain much closer mechanical alignment than I had before.
I thought with the -almost- new moon, the acid test for the flocking would be the images of objects near the moon without a dew shield. Later the planets would be up and the alignment would determine the detail I could see.
Well, when I arrived, I was supprised to see that no moon was evident so that part was going to have to wait awhile. I guess Im still not over summer (or don't want to be) when it got dark at 10pm. The coyotes greeted me along with fellow observers. Then I found out that the switch had gotten turned on for the scope and the batteries were real dead. I hooked up the external and ignored it for awhile to let the batteries charge.
After doing some collimation and resetting the wedge from LSA, I was noting the double-double was split with the 32mm TV Plossl. However, collimation was difficult with the scope still adjusting and the seeing poor.
The moon finally came up 2 beers later. We all started watching low in
the atmosphere and went on an ep and barlow trading and trying frenzy. We
actually got an image with the 2.3mm and a 5x barlow in James 114mm Orion
ED. That was about 1300x or 290x per inch. (wasn't much of an image
As the moon an planets rose, I made my observations. Again, evaluating
your own work is like your car getting better mileage when you clean the
interior. However, as the seeing steadied, I recollimated the scope with
noticeably better results and I was able to see four craterlets in Plato
(a double, and 2 singles). There is another crater near the rim in a
drawing in Rukl's (but it doesn't show up in the photograph on the same
page). I could see a ridge line (rill?) at the exact location but
couldn't make out a crater.
Not bad, but as the planets were getting better I could see lots of detail
on Jupiter. As much or more than I have seen with the scope except maybe
one night last year and I think the seeing and transparency at Coe then
was much better on that night. Some college kids looking for a birthday
party showed up and were awed by the views of Jupiter and Saturn along
with the ending of a transit of Jupiter by one of the moons. One of the
girls kept saying that Saturn looked like a postcard and it must be a
picture. They had a little young dog with them that I mentioned wouldn't
even make a good snack for the coyotes and they put him on a leash.
I was extremely pleased with the performance. At least, I did no damage.
At one point, I was looking in the front of the scope and noticed a -very-
bright spot on the corrector. By getting my head just right I could see
that it was the moon at a small angle away from the scope reflecting off
of the primary and back out through the corrector -very bright-. The
scope was pointed at Saturn which wasn't very far away from the moon.
Looking through the scope gave no hint that the moon was doing that, so I
am calling the flocking a success. I purposely didn't put on the dew
shield. I also didn't bother with the dew strap either so when it got a
little damp later, I resorted to the Orion 12v hair dryer.
The others there were exclaiming that it looked good so it made me feel
good but I know this bunch hardly ever says anything bad about equipment
or people. It was a great time and a whole lot of fun. I was sorry when
it clouded up again about 1:30 or so and we packed to leave. Not too bad
for an evening that I thought would end early. I am glad I took the risk
with the clouds. The seeing turned out to be pretty steady after about
10:30 and while the clouds dissapated, the transparency was, at best,
murky.