As the sun was taking a header in the west, I saw the clouds just evaporating before my eyes. I knew that tonight was the night! Out with the 'scope and set up in the back yard. First job, align the finder scope. What better than a crescent moon - nice and large and easy to find. Oh what a moon it was! Soooo bright (have to get a moon filter
). The Venus appeared not far away and I quickly lined up on that. Half full phase clearly visible although atmospheric disturbances caused a lot of shimmer. Noworries so far. Then Canopus appeared - let's try the finder. Bang on. Oooh, there's Sirius - now for an scope alignment - 2 star. Seemed to go smoothly, scope software reported success. Now the test - find Rigel for me. Whirr went the coffee grinder , er slew motors, and the scope developed a mind of its own and swung in the general direction of Orion. A peep through the lens showed it had missed, but not by much. A slight adjustment of position and there it was. Tracking too!
Over the course of the next few hours I played around with the alignment issue, but I fear the problem is my eyesight and glasses and not being able to accurately centre the image in the eyepiece. Perhaps a higher mag eyepiece would assist. Enough on that.
Just had to look closely at the great nebula in Orion. Quickly found it and spent much time moving around. Saw the Trapezium shining brightly in it's midst. It was amazing how quickly time flew. Spent some time just getting the "feel" of the scope and moving around. So I guess, didn't get to see a great variety, but spent a good time learning about my new toy. Wife came to look too!
I was really impressed with the clarity and brightness of the optics of the scope, even though they are quite basic. Orion is barely visible to the naked eye, the sword virtually non-existent.
Come on more clear nights, but not tonight. The clouds rolled in again this morning and looks like they'll be around for a few days to come.