Last weekend after my first astronomical session in years, under the guidance of Zane at Magellan Observatory (Lake Bathurst, NSW), I've found a new energy in the hobby. I've always loved the stars, and in particular the solar system and our moon, but have never been under CONTROL of my own observations. I've always had to just look-on as others went through the motions, hoping that they may show me something great as they flew on past... Well - all that changed today
Jenny and I raced down to Magellan last night (Friday) and picked up our new baby - Zane's ex 12" SCT. After another familiarisation session last night, Zane kindly gave it the once over to make sure it would travel well. We packed it in its bag and it fit into our Land Rover's back seat - perfectly..... just!
I have to say that Zane is a fantastic bloke. He is very knowledgeable and extremely helpful. He tossed in a few nice options like a t-piece and small digital camera mount. He also gave me a copy of a Moon book we were discussing last time I was down - a pictorial odyssey of the moon. For this I thank him with all I've got - a very generous gift and well appreciated.
Got it home and firstly cut and shortened the tripod's tension spars as Zane had modified the height some time ago. Being mounted on a purpose-built plinth the legs we didn't realise that the spars were too long with the shorter legs going back to a normal free-standing mode.
Got her home, hooked her up, GPS locked - even through our roof (which I found odd - I wonder if it really did or not??)_ and I practised with the Autostar menus again.
CAN'T WAIT to take it outside tonight, but just saw the weather report on the news stating rain until Thursday.....
Oh well... it's been years in the making anyway!
I know you've seen them all before, but here' my little baby anyhow!