ok. my wife has just got home and i was able to show her jupiter just before it went down in the west. She loved it. Smoke from the wood fires made sure no bands were there, but the moons of jupiter were.
After my first night, I would have to say, it is what I thought it would be and more. With a great night to start with good to very good seeing (see asimov you have taught me something). I saw more than I expected.
Jupiter on 6.5mm and 12.5mm
Vega
Antares
Beta centauri
Fomalhaut
I also had a scan around for Uranus & Neptune. Wrapped, i was able to navigate around this area.
The 6.5 and 12 were able to distinguish the double star at Agena, but later in the night, I could not.
I have not collimated due to the missing Cheshire.
Disappointed in the toucam as the adapter i have does not seem to fit anything. I am about to read Mike's astrophotography reference and see if i can find an answer.
I will have a crack at mars later tonight and see if i can get mr toucam (who is in the naughty corner with me and ken) cracking.
My office works telescopic chair worked well.
Scope had a slight tendancy to keep moving near the zenith (see asimov - two things you have taught me).
Mike's buggys will be the way to go. Carrying a 10" dob complete is scary.
I want to be able to wheel it in and out of the garage.
All in all, a great start. A 5 yr old daughter who can't wait until the weekend to fall asleep again in the car, whilst watching me scope. A genuinely pleased wife who is showing more than just a fleeting interest.
if the ota has a tendancy to move up it's probably a balance issue.. are you using it with the tension springs on? Mine also has a tendancy to swing upwards without the tension springs attached, it was slightly off balance out off the box but the balance has become abit worse from the 120mm fan.. but with the tension spring attached she stays still.. I'm waiting til i redo my car speakers to sort it out You can still star test collimate which asimov is probably the best person to ask for advise.. he thinks cheshires are evil Does the cap that goes on your focuser have a little hole in the middle? u can use that as a sight cap.. just look through the hole and make sure everything is concentric, then do the star test.. well.. at least i think thats how ur supposed to do it without the cheshire.. asimov..
what do you mean the toucam adapter doesn't fit? it looked right in the picture of it.. you just slot it into the focuser.. it was a 1.25" right? you should be imaging prime focal.. or is it afocal.. can't remember which one it was.. but it's the one where you put the camera straight into the focuser without the eyepiece.. i think. could be wrong though..
i noticed later in night after moving unit around a couple of time to chase jupiter around the rooflines, that focusing was a little harder on say vega
Sorry Dave...ummm that ain't the focuser? I can see the adapter, I got no idea what that black thing is on the right? Is it the adapter that goes on the camera...then fits into the adapter on the left, yes?
black thing on right screws into camera instead of the lens. then it fits nicely into 1.25" thing on left which slots into the crayford focuser. Is the thing on the left the 1.25" to 2" adapter? THere is thread on the other side and the outer diameter there is 2"?
there is most definately a wow factor. Like when i got married, when the children were born, there was a calmness and rightness about those situations. Same with the scope. It simply feels right.
I am venturing back out now to look at mars, but before that will try prime focus setup of the webcam in the garage to see if can focus the bugger, and then take him out and point him at mars.
oh, ok! Glad we got that one established! I was getting worried there for a second! Dont expect much out of mars....it's miles too close to the horizon for decent views! (unless mars is a lot higher up above the horizon than it is here, compared to Tassie!? ) If you can see it's white polar cap, you'll be doing ok!
My suggestion is to check out the lagoon nebula, using your lowest power EP.. & the omega centauri globular cluster! THAT will give you the WOW factor mate!