Chris' Backyard

by Greg Claytor

First thing we did was collimate. It was pretty far off, but we managed to wrangle it back to an acceptable tolerance. Then we swung over to Vega to align the finder. Had to monkey with the dovetail mount a bit, but got this sorted our too. Next was mount the Telrad. Did you know that if you look through the Telrad backwards that you can't see anything? Good thing we discovered that before we peeled the adhesive back. Got it mounted, no problem.

First target was Alberio to fine tune the finders. Bingo! There they were. Nice little blue star floating above, (below in the scope) a big yellow star. Now to hunt down our inaugural DSO. Chris chose the Dumbbell.

We cracked open our star atlas and found the coordinates and star hopped over to the Dumbbell. We stared with the 2" 30mm that came with the scope. Whata wad of coma! I asked Chris if he wanted me to chuck it in his least favorite neighbors backyard. We magged up using a Stratus 21mm. Much better. We added a SkyGlow, but it didn't achieve much. Then another step up using a Stratus 7mm. Very Nice. I like these 68 degree eyepieces. Chris grabbed two beers and we toasted to "First Light" then christened his newest best toy "The Dumbbell".

Next up was the Double Double. Chris found it, but we couldn't split 'em with the 21mm. They just barely fit the field of view so magging up to the 7mm wouldn't have solved anything. Moving along...

Next up was the M57. Badda Bing, there's the Ring. I love the Cheerio. Always will.

Next up was M31. I think I've finally got that location memorized now. A necessary skill when viewing with a moon because I couldn't see it with just my eye.

Next up was the Double cluster. Good thing I didn't throw the 30mm over the fence. The 21mm worked well too, but just barely. This is where we started to notice how loose the azimuth was. Zhumell has a lazy suzan bearing between the ground board and the rocker box. We grabbed a carpet remnant, sat it next to scope, rolled the scope over and tightened up the bolt. A little too tight for me, but Chris'll get sorted out.

We wanted to find a Glob and tried, but between our questionable star chart and star hoping skills we were unable too. We had agreed to a hard stop at 11:00 and time was running out so... what the heck, let's pierce our retinas with some moon light!

We swung the Dumbbell dob over and put the moon in the eyepiece. I knew Chris had it when he pulled his face away from the scope. His eye was lit up with what looked like a flashlight! Now I gotta admit that I don't get real excited about the moon anymore, but WOW! This 12" newt is fantastic. I think I spent more time at the eyepiece than ever before. The detail was jaw dropping. Very cool!

I'd loaned Chris my XT4.5 all summer. He gave it back and thanked me for re-igniting his passion for astronomy. Chris, I know you lurk here. It's mutual. Thank you for being a good friend. It's fun having someone to share the hobby with. You've taught me much.

Greg Claytor