First light tonight

[Peteren]

Got it all assembled and running so as long as I can work out the Gemini goto I should get my first views through the new telescope tonight

[omegacrux]

Sweet
enjoy the views looks nice

David

[Rod771]

Looks good Peter, C14 HD very nice, hope the clouds behave themselves :thumbsup:

[Ric]

Very nice Peter

Hope your firstlight was a success

[Barrykgerdes]

How did it work out. Do you have a Gemini I or II

I found the Gemini I difficult to use at first because of the way to access the menus. I also printed out the manual.

Mine is on a G11 so I set up the mount near my desk during the day and did dummy alignments for hours til I could manipulate the buttons "blindfolded" and complete the alignment process "automatically".

My son uses it these days and can complete a polar alignment in about 10 mins using PHD and start taking photos.

Barry

[GC - South Aus]

G'day Peter

:eyepop: C14HD on a G11, please don't tell me this is your first scope! (I am assuming that is was the setup is based on other peoples entries, I couldn't quite make out the scope size from the side of the OTA)

Very, Very, Very Envious! :thumbsup:

Great setup mate. Can't wait to hear how you go with it and what you are planning to do with it. Are you planning on doing any imaging?

I am in SA, what are the skies like in Whyalla? I guess they would be much darker than mine in the "Burbs"!

Enjoy her mate, she is a beauty!

Regards

Gav

[Peteren]

Not my first, but nearly!

Its a Gemini 1, I set up my location etc earlier in the day only to find when I turned it back on the UTC had gone to zero, replaced the internal battery and now it’s OK

Also had fat thumbs when I set the latitude, got +ve instead of –ve so the mount thought it was in the northern hemisphere and got all upset.

Got that sorted and managed the first alignment but the controller refused to let me do additional alignments. Re reading the manual this morning I found that I was doing it wrong.

Did get a bit of viewing but bright stars are broken up and dim ones cannot be focused so I think the collimation is slightly out.

So a bit more practice this afternoon and hopefully a good alignment tonight then get it collimated and go from there.

The backyard setup is temporary, the shed is getting a roll off roof segment and pier.

I’m on the western edge of town so the only light pollution is to the east and it’s not too bad.

From the ridge cap of my shed there is full 360 deg view from 30 deg up so I’m looking forward to getting it permanently setup

Just need to start saving for some imaging equipment

[GC - South Aus]

All sounds great.

I hope the cloud gods favour you tonight, weather is not too bad in the city at the moment.

Regards

Gav

[stardust steve]

Impressive looking light bucket that!:eyepop:
I hope you got to get some good views in. I was at Pt. Victoria on the Y.P on the weekend end. The conditions there were ok. Fri night cleared up around 10pm and the wind dropped around 11pm. Then the dew came.
A bit windy Sat night.
The skies were DARK. LMC and SMC along with the Milky Way easily seen naked eye.
:thumbsup:

[cmknight]

Nice looking setup, Peter. First thing I'd do tho, is replace that straight-thru finder with a right angled finder. It makes things sooo much easier towards the zenith ... unless, of course, you plan on using nothing but the GOTO. :D

[Poita]

get the scope outside as soon as the sun sets. That beast takes a while to cool down.

One of these setups is mandatory I reckon to get nice stable seeing:
http://www.deepspaceproducts.com/temp-est-temperature-equilibration-system-for-telescopes-for-fastar-only-scts_8_4243_9332.html
or alternatively, one of these:
https://starizona.com/acb/Cool-Edge---SCT-Cooler---14-P3386C804.aspx

The C14 takes forever otherwise.