First light report on my new ED80 and HEQ5 mount!!!

[joshman (Josh)]

yesterday i got the call that my mount was in. i popped over and picked it up, more excited than a child at christmas i was, but even then i still couldn;t open. i went back home and packed all my gear up and drove out to my parents place in gatton where the skies are fairly black for the most part. once there i finally unpacked the mount and put it all together, mounted the scope, balanced the mount, etc. and let me tell you, i was hard pressed to lift the whole thing when it was built. i had to pull it apart to move it down to the back yard. i also found out that the mount is designed (but not limited to) north pole use. the mask in the polar scope has all the north pole aligning stars! after finally setting up (and a call to astro_south, to make sure the motors were working accordingly, thanks again!), it was time for first light!the day was still cloudy, with patches clearing up every now and then, around dusk it cleared up nicely, but come night time the cloud had rolled in. being diligent, and having a bit of faith, i set the mount up as best i could (really should have done this during the day) and awaited a gap in the cloud through which i could view, and possibly even do a polar alignment, but now, the fun of polar alignment was not to be had this night. there were patches where is cleared right up, the seeing and transparency were excellent in these holes that formed, if only for a 10 minute window! however, through these rare patches i managed to see:The PleiadesMarsAndromedaand Comet Holmeslast night definitely makes me want to purchase a 2x barlow and 4 or 6 mm eyepiece...just for that something extra.... or maybe a zoom eyepiece and 2x barlow... the choices are endless!they were the big highlights of the evening, and all that i can remember of what i viewed, i was stoked that i saw comet holmes on first light, and purely by accident too! there was only one patch of sky clear at the time, really low in the north sky, so i started browsing it and came across the comet.not too bad a viewing for a first light on my first scope.this is only the beginning...

[Ric]

Good value Josh, there is nothing quite like that first light. Hope you get some better and longer nights.

Cheers

[astro_south (Andrew)]

Comet Holmes is a nice memorable first light - glad you had fun. Looking forward to our next observing session so I can have a peek through the scope. Will your scope box and mount fit in my car?

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Nice one Josh.
Now all we need is for these blasted clouds to blow away.

[Terry B]

Originally Posted by joshman

snip
. i also found out that the mount is designed (but not limited to) north pole use. the mask in the polar scope has all the north pole aligning stars!

Joshman
I assume my EQ6 has the same polar reticule. It has northern stars but also the southern asterism for aligning on the south pole. It works very well.

[xelasnave]

Dont even worry about using a polar scope I reckon they cause more frustration than not.
Make sure you tell the mount to track.. if similar to the eq6 you need to tell it so.
Great to hear you at least got to use it the night of the day you got it... I have had my DSI's and auto guiding ready for near a month and no real opportunity and it is driving me crazy..more crazy that is
alex

[joshman (Josh)]

Originally Posted by astro_south

Comet Holmes is a nice memorable first light - glad you had fun. Looking forward to our next observing session so I can have a peek through the scope. Will your scope box and mount fit in my car?

it was a darn memorable sight, especially consideringt teh circumstance under which i saw it. it was the only patch of clear sky, and the first thing i pointed the scope at in that part of the sky too. i managed to through the camera prime focus though the scoe grab a photo of it on saturday night, so once i've had some sleep and after work tomorrow i'll go through my pics and post what i took....

i had second light last night, it was absolutely fantastic, the seeing and transparency was fantastic from 9:30 till about 2am, at which point it clouded over completely, but the sky was so clear!!!! i just wish i had a higher power eyepiece so i could view a few thigns better. and i think a higher power eye piece would allow me to align easier, which would be nice.

the mount and scope should fit, if we took out the baby seat, then yeah, it should definitely fit. i'm working on making it all into as small a package as i can, sop as to minimize what i need to put into the car.

i really need to learn to align the scope better!!!! i did the roughest align job, but it worked well enough for what i was doing. was getting star visible star trailing at 20 seconds... can't wait to get another chance to get out and go through it all again!!!!!

[Hagar (Doug)]

Hi Josjh glad you had a good night. Not so down this way. I love my 80 and eq6. Great combination.
I think the best addon is an illuminated reticle EP. It makes polar drift alignment much easier.

Cheers
Doug

[sejanus (Gavin)]

Originally Posted by Terry B

Joshman
I assume my EQ6 has the same polar reticule. It has northern stars but also the southern asterism for aligning on the south pole. It works very well.

I am in awe of anyone who managed to polar align via the inbuilt reticule in southen hemisphere

I never could do that with my eq6, I could sight octans with my eyes (just) but could never get it into the reticule, or if I did it was too dim to make out.

[citivolus (Ric)]

Originally Posted by sejanus

I never could do that with my eq6, I could sight octans with my eyes (just) but could never get it into the reticule, or if I did it was too dim to make out.

Someone needs to come out with an image intensified polar scope. I'm guessing it would have a market.