Astroman
20-08-2006, 08:53 AM
Hi all,
Yesterday was an awesome day for Astronomy. The day started at about 11:30am where I went up to Stockport Observatories, about 45 minutes from me. When I got there not much was happening, during the day there was meant to be a Working bee and a telescope clinic with members viewing night afterwards along with BBQ.
By about 2pm things started to roll, with some people bringing a range of telescopes which had problems to varying degrees as well as mirror cleaning to the usual collimation tips and hints. I was mainly there to get my 8” F7 Newtonian mirror checked out for possible signs of deformation. We set up the apparatus in the main dome where the atmosphere was the most stable. The fellow doing the test was very careful to do it correctly although his equipment was over 30 years old. We stuck with a Ronchi test, as this was the one to show a majority of the problems if I had any. Once the apparatus was set up it was very apparent that my poor old 8” f7 mirror suffers from a turned down edge and also has a minor hill in the middle, which wouldn’t be noticed behind the secondary. So I have a small lemon, which confirmed what I had thought all along. I was given advise on how I can correct this from the simple fix of masking off the mirror so it becomes a 7.5” F7 or go the extreme and refigure the mirror completely. I think I might try the masking first. After this everyone was given a chance of having a look at a mirror being tested.
I set up my other scope and had the guys look over it, not much needed to be done to it, just a minor tweak to the secondary to line it up correctly. I also need to change the focuser as the one I have on there now moves the image too much.
After that we went up into the main dome for a look at the 20” scope and to set it up ready for a nights observing. I went back down to ground level and hung around till night fall where we had a BBQ and small chat then prepared for a nights viewing all the time watching the cloud burn off.
There were a small range of telescopes from my 8” f6, a 8” f7, a small 150mm x 750mm Refractor, and also a 14” LX200GPS. As the night got darker we observed a range of objects from the usual “glossies” and then stepped up to harder objects which we only viewed through the 14” needless to say about 85% to 90% of my observing was done on the Meade 14”. For a Meade it’s a bloody nice telescope. We observed M9, M10, NGC 253, and other objects way to many to list here off my head, I will update with a list later. All up from nightfall to about 3am we observed through the 14”, which was great, I even tested some objects through the 8”, which was giving superb views for its limited aperture. It was pulling most objects up through my 15mm TV plossl. I even had a play on the meade myself while the owner was checking out objects to view.
All up it was a great night of observing, we have a Star Party next weekend and I plan to take the 8” along, it should be a good night.
Yesterday was an awesome day for Astronomy. The day started at about 11:30am where I went up to Stockport Observatories, about 45 minutes from me. When I got there not much was happening, during the day there was meant to be a Working bee and a telescope clinic with members viewing night afterwards along with BBQ.
By about 2pm things started to roll, with some people bringing a range of telescopes which had problems to varying degrees as well as mirror cleaning to the usual collimation tips and hints. I was mainly there to get my 8” F7 Newtonian mirror checked out for possible signs of deformation. We set up the apparatus in the main dome where the atmosphere was the most stable. The fellow doing the test was very careful to do it correctly although his equipment was over 30 years old. We stuck with a Ronchi test, as this was the one to show a majority of the problems if I had any. Once the apparatus was set up it was very apparent that my poor old 8” f7 mirror suffers from a turned down edge and also has a minor hill in the middle, which wouldn’t be noticed behind the secondary. So I have a small lemon, which confirmed what I had thought all along. I was given advise on how I can correct this from the simple fix of masking off the mirror so it becomes a 7.5” F7 or go the extreme and refigure the mirror completely. I think I might try the masking first. After this everyone was given a chance of having a look at a mirror being tested.
I set up my other scope and had the guys look over it, not much needed to be done to it, just a minor tweak to the secondary to line it up correctly. I also need to change the focuser as the one I have on there now moves the image too much.
After that we went up into the main dome for a look at the 20” scope and to set it up ready for a nights observing. I went back down to ground level and hung around till night fall where we had a BBQ and small chat then prepared for a nights viewing all the time watching the cloud burn off.
There were a small range of telescopes from my 8” f6, a 8” f7, a small 150mm x 750mm Refractor, and also a 14” LX200GPS. As the night got darker we observed a range of objects from the usual “glossies” and then stepped up to harder objects which we only viewed through the 14” needless to say about 85% to 90% of my observing was done on the Meade 14”. For a Meade it’s a bloody nice telescope. We observed M9, M10, NGC 253, and other objects way to many to list here off my head, I will update with a list later. All up from nightfall to about 3am we observed through the 14”, which was great, I even tested some objects through the 8”, which was giving superb views for its limited aperture. It was pulling most objects up through my 15mm TV plossl. I even had a play on the meade myself while the owner was checking out objects to view.
All up it was a great night of observing, we have a Star Party next weekend and I plan to take the 8” along, it should be a good night.