Astroman
14-01-2006, 08:13 AM
Well lastnight I was quite successful in bagging a few objects. First up was to Align the scope using three stars.
ALDEBARAN, SIRIUS and FOMALHAUT.
I chose these because they were reasonably well seperated in the sky. Although Aldebaran and Sirius were both on the same side of the Meridian, but using these stars I have been getting some really good accuracy.
I then slewed to the Objects below.
M41, M42, M43, M45, M46, M47, M48, M50, M67, M78 also NGC 104 and SIgma Orionis.
I also revisited Mars, NGC2169 (a must for beginners) and a few others which I cannot remember as I have all the logs on another computer.
I was somewhat limited what I could see because of the full moon, but it still gave me a good chance to use the telescope with the laptop and using lx200 commands to slew it. I must admit that some of these objects would have been overlooked if it wasn't for the GOTO. Anyway it's nice to go back to the lod open star clusters and check them out.
I am really pleased with the accuracy of the Telescope, although much work needs to be done with it's tracking. Right now I can keep an object in the field of a 25mm eyepiece (about 57x mag) for about 30 minutes. But after 5 minutes you can see that its drifting. Also my Az gear has a slight amount of backlash which I need to remove somehow. Only visible when microstepping (going slow) cant see it when slewing.
ALDEBARAN, SIRIUS and FOMALHAUT.
I chose these because they were reasonably well seperated in the sky. Although Aldebaran and Sirius were both on the same side of the Meridian, but using these stars I have been getting some really good accuracy.
I then slewed to the Objects below.
M41, M42, M43, M45, M46, M47, M48, M50, M67, M78 also NGC 104 and SIgma Orionis.
I also revisited Mars, NGC2169 (a must for beginners) and a few others which I cannot remember as I have all the logs on another computer.
I was somewhat limited what I could see because of the full moon, but it still gave me a good chance to use the telescope with the laptop and using lx200 commands to slew it. I must admit that some of these objects would have been overlooked if it wasn't for the GOTO. Anyway it's nice to go back to the lod open star clusters and check them out.
I am really pleased with the accuracy of the Telescope, although much work needs to be done with it's tracking. Right now I can keep an object in the field of a 25mm eyepiece (about 57x mag) for about 30 minutes. But after 5 minutes you can see that its drifting. Also my Az gear has a slight amount of backlash which I need to remove somehow. Only visible when microstepping (going slow) cant see it when slewing.