Nice clear night and a dry day so was my first chance to put the EQ6 up on the concrete pad and see how it went.
After figuring out how to drive it again managed a 2 star alignment ( short on time ) ACrux and Canopus and checked out the GoTo functions. Only had my 4.5" Newt on ( more on this later ) and alignment was nowhere near perfect but for a first play round in the dark it did the trick.
Seeing was good, not great, transparency good also some minor high haze. 15mm and 20mm GSO Super View EPs. Started around 8:30, finished 10:00
kCru - easy, looked nice and showed some star colours.
Flicked over to see Saturn which proved my alignment was close but not great. Seeing prevented much detail.
Decided to try some galaxy hunting but struggled to see and align till I found NGC 5128 which was just discernable with averted vision. It was high in my eastern sky so not the best viewing direction (CBD)
Then NGC 5139, w Cen. Nice glob, very soft faint image. I was not able to define individual stars. Tried barlow x2 with the 20 but lost contrast. I suspect seeing was not as good as I imagined, still getting used to judging that.
Tried a few other Galaxies with no luck and then had a look at Eta C with the OIII filter. Certainly defines the dust better but the small scope and seeing did not help.
Finally tried for Sombrero M104 which was high in my northern sky. Misalignment did not help but found the three closely lined up pointer stars NW of it and finally with averted vision I reckon I spotted it. Very dim and coming and going but a few times I think I spotted the dark lane through the edge. Very difficult, I would like to confirm it later.
Conclusion:
1. The mount is excellent, especially if I do a proper alignment next time. This was a training run.
2. A permanent setup would be amazing, carrying that thing around is just a real pain. That idea is in progress. SkySlab will be born in some form eventually.
3. The scope is too small for serious visual under poor skies .....
This is the real stickler so I am planning a rebuild of Skeletope. It saw first light Oct 2010 but with what I have learned since I will build a lightweight OTA, possibly a truss design ( Rolfs Serrurier was nice ! ) and use the mirrors, spider & focusser and make it mountable to the EQ6. If I design it right I should be able to rig it to also sit in a redesigned Dob base as well for the best of both worlds.
The other option is another C8 coming up on the local auction site but I've missed on two of these so far so not holding my breath for this one.
Night wasn't even super cold but I'll have to look at dew control as well as primary fogged up slightly towards the end.
A good educational night all in all..
