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Old 01-06-2010, 08:20 AM
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NJB (Noel)
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Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Plainland, Qld
Posts: 54
Argo Navis first night

At last I got a night when I could try out the Argo Navis. Just after twilight, I did the align. (That took a while to get right because I was trying to remember how to set the FIX ALT REF. So I took my laptop outside to look up the manual, but forgot I had been using it on battery previously. It lasted just long enough to read the relevant section, and work out the rest.) I aligned on Antares and Acrux, had a look at the Blue Planetary NGC 3918. Then it was left on while other family things were done - dinner, time with my daughter, putting her to bed, etc. Finally, I came out about 12:30, and selected M4 and M80, both of which appeared within a 15mm eyepiece. Great stuff. Then I looked at NGC 5128, but the moon was too bright and it was washed out. I tried some other things before going to Neptune. Beautiful. Then I left it and came out about 3:30 to look at Jupiter and Uranus, but the AA batteries in the Argo Navis had run down, so I just had a look at Jupiter and its one equatorial band, then called it a night. Now to wait for a better night without the moon. But I am very pleased with the Argo Navis and how well it works. Thanks Gary for a great device!

Noel
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