Monday 28/08/06 - 6:45pm - my first light

[Omaroo]

Southern Sydney - the clouds have GONE after a really wet day!!!!!!!!!!

I'm setting up right now - the moon is out, the sky is reasonably dark.... YEEEEEHAHAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

Finally I can now check out my first telescope :thumbsup:

Back later :D

[astronut]

Let me know how it goes Chris:) :)

[Omaroo]

Thanks John :) I'm just aligning now.......

Did you recieve my email re Saturday?

Cheers
Chris

[Omaroo]

Hmm.. having difficulty doing even an auto-align. When asked to select the "brightest" star - there aren't any until I go to the edge of the FOV using a 11mm Tele Vue Plossl. Are they referring to the "brightest" star anywhere near where it's pointing, or slew right over to the nearest "really" bright star within a couple of minutes? I took a guess a few times and then asked to GOTO to the moon - it missed by quite a margin - at least a degree or two in RA and Dec.

I guess I'll get some more help on Saturday with the MAS guys :)

Anyway - I've been tootling around with the various EP's and have found a few major stars successfully with the Planisphere. The twin suns of Alpha Centauri are particularly bright. Very nice!

Think I'll go for Antares next....... :D:D:D:D

[acropolite]

The brightest star during alignment is rarely in the FOV of a 26mm EP, you usually roughly centre the star using the red dot or 8x50 finder then centre again with the 26mm. (The brightest star will be more apparent in the finderscope). I have found the automatic alignment to be notoriously unreliable, I always override and manually select alignment stars.

[Omaroo]

Cheers Phil

I've now found that the scope was about 45 degrees off in its initial positioning. Maybe has something to do with its re-location of 170km....

I tried the two-star lignment method on a-Crux and Achernar and no problems. Right on the money now :)

Now I have to go through collimation, a complete setup from whoa to go including gear training, GPS position, time/date etc. Maybe auto will wotk better then. :shrug:

Cheers
Chris

[Lee]

Glad it all seems better now..... I don't think 170km could translate to 45 degrees in any direction though..... :shrug:

[Omaroo]

I agree :shrug: Maybe a pot-hole on the way home jiggled it a bit much or something. I was being very careful where my wheels went, I can tell you! Weird.

[ving]

ahh! another macarthur local hey?

I have a pre fathersday lunch with family on that day but if i can get rid of them early enough then I'll pop around and see you guys :)

[Omaroo]

:):):) Be good to meet you, oh friendly bovine! :):):)

Jenny and I are going to try to be there around 6:30-7:00, so if you make it, make sure you say g'day! And..yes.. we are Macarthur locals... :thumbsup:

Cheers
Chris