Clear skies all day here in Perth had me looking forward to getting out the achro tonight.
Finished work about 2200, dropped by the pizza shop and by the time l had devoured dinner and dragged everything outside it was closer to midnight.
First for my polar alignment. Set the tripod exactly on the marks I'd put on the concrete last week and have a look through my polar scope. Yep, can see faint stars, no idea which ones though, finder scope didn't help much so out with the 2" 30mm 68° and not much better. No idea what was what, nothing looked like T Oct and the other three but when l turned the Declination control not much happened so l was very close, happy with that.
Meridian flip straight around to Jupiter and three moons all lined up.
Only had two or three stars in the view on a milky black background.
Jupiter was very bright with only the two faint bands visible in the 30mm EP, the moons pin sharp though.
The 15mm 68° was a far better view with still only the two dark bands as detail but more colour over the entire surface.
Then it was 240x with the Orion Edge on Planetary 5mm EP.
Was a nice site and testament to my polar alignment having to only use one control for the half hour l observed it.
I tried a Saxon colour planetary filter #58 and a neutral density to try and curb the chromatic aberration which both worked well at however the focus was near impossible to achieve and the little detail l had was gone so l viewed with the lovely purple corona.
Very dewy, not many stars visible with the naked eye, no moon yet which was good.
Looking forward to better glass next week but only 72mm.
Must get a longer declination control, almost impossible to view in some parts of the sky. Very tempted to get a small goto mount but saving for something in the $3k range like an AZ EQ6 GT.
Things in the mail are, SW ED72, Founder Optics 0.8 flatner, pier extension, 2x Barlow, some camera stuff and a Svbony dew strap, need two more for the 72 and 50mm finder scope.
I need to build a hutch to cover all my stuff and keep the dew off and allow me to bring the laptop outside.
Saw two faint fuzzies with the 30mm when first slewing to Jupiter which gives me hope.
What a wonderful life, drive trains and look at planet's.
Clear skies fella's
