Well, my first light brought clouds! I didn't have a diagonal, or any eye-pieces other than a Panoptic 24mm. Still I picked up the scope (with one hand mind you!) and plopped in on the balcony just so I can see a star! I'll just use it Japanese style.
http://www.pbase.com/snaggs/image/89661400/original.jpg
Whipped out the November SkyMap (anyone else use Skymaps.com free monthly PDF as their menu?) and started to try and figure out what wasn't covered by walls or clouds. In between the gaps I did manage to find Tucanae 47.
Interesting! It certainly is a refractor and reminded me instantly of the look tI had through a AstroPhysics traveller a few years ago. Tuc 47 looked like someone had spilt a little pile of micro glitter, thousands of the tiniest little winsy stars. Hmm.. this Televue eye-piece is not too bad.
Now I know its easy to find, but I still felt a sense of pride that I'd done it all by star hopping after having got lazy with Goto. Who knows, I might even learn the constellations again.
Clouds got worse, but as I was playing with knobs and looking at the sky (naked eye) I saw a large meteor burn itself up in our atmosphere.. biggest one I've seen.
Not a bad end to the evening. Can't wait to get it into some dark skys for the full moon on the 9th. The diagonal has arrived and hopefully a batch of eye-pieces from Edmund Scientific will arrive in time (4mm Ortho, 8mm RKE, 12mm RKE).
In the mean-time I've been plucking foam and broken it down into its cradle. Two pelican cases, 1520 and 1550 are just perfect.
http://www.pbase.com/snaggs/image/89708148/original.jpg
Some last information.. the mount is absoloutely lovely. These can be bought new in Japan and Australia, and they have some updates compared to the reviews you see on the net. The TG-HD remote control has extra options you didn't get compared to the model reviewed by Luis (
http://www.astrosurf.com/carreira/co...k_p2z_eng.html).
Firstly, it has 5 speeds (Sidereal, Solar, 0.7, 0.5, 0.3) and the cable IS detachable from the motor and controller. It is totally industrial in its build quality.
Daniel.
PS. The cost of the Sky 90 w/p2z w/legs & diagonal etc, was LESS than the cost that AstroOptical were quoting me for a Vixen 4" / Goto Mount setup. The A$/YEN cross rate is strong and credit to AEC for passing the saving's on directly.
Apologies for the clouds in Perth.. Sky 90 arrives...
