Well after a couple of weeks of being rather busy I finally had a good excuse to get outside tonight and try out my shiny new Astronomik UHC filter and Televue Powermate. These items arrived on Friday and I couldn't wait give them a go. The weather unfortunately wasn't cooperative on Friday but tonight was not bad at all. First up I tried the UHC on Eta Carine and M42. Both revealed more detail than I had ever seen before from my light pollution affected backyard so I'm very happy
Next up was the Powermate. I decided to wait a bit for Saturn to get a bit higher first, but unfortunately this is where my fun ended. The LXD-55 decided to start slipping again rapidly bring a halt to the nights observing. Looks like the mount just isn't going to cooperate
On a side note after reading all the collimation threads that were on here a few weeks ago I decided to get an Orion collimating eyepiece. After initially struggling to work out what all the reflections meant, I figured I had the SN-10 fairly well collimated. A star test tonight revealed a perfectly circular pattern so thanks to everyone who recommended the Orion
Once you get the hang of it it really is a great item. The optics on the SN-10 never cease to amaze me, unfortunately the mount has been nothing but trouble
