So there I was, day two, waiting for the dark to come so I could try out the AutoStar and GOTO somewhere...

I know what you are thinking - I wait until dark and then fumble around trying to set up the mount and learn by error and error how frustrating it can be.

Nope I'm much too impatient for that - I decided to set up the doohickey in the spare room and have a play with it there instead! That all went quite well as it happens. Set up the mount then plugged in the AutoStar controller then the moment of truth - threw the switch and... some lights on the handset and a nice beep.

After faffing around setting the location and date etc - it does help here to read the manual first I noticed - I was about to try slewing the scope around with the buttons when it started doins things of its own accord! Eek what button did I press? How do I stop it?

"Slewing..." accompanied by the whineing of an 18V electic hammer drill - what a racket - did I break something?

After a couple of minutes of trying to stop it I just let it Easy Align (remember to avoid that next time) and eventually it announces "Alignment Successful" or some such anodyne phrase.

So I thought thank Jupiter for that, but I dont want it slewing around the sky arbitrarily nilly while I try to get to grips with the manual slewing controls - so I just turned the darn thing off and on again - this time taking care not to trigger an Easy Alignment.

By this time me old mucker Jupiter was peeking on the Southern sky so I thought to myself eh up..

After a few moments of fiddling around I discovered that 0.5 deg slewing speed makes quite a difference to the sound of the drill that is hidden in the mount and to my pleasant surprise the hand box made control of the pointing much better than I had anticipated and hugely better than trying to twist and point by hand - especially without any kind of finder.

Anyway after a few minutes of jigging around I was confident that I was ready to try aligning the scope and test the GOTO. I did notice that when the thing went off earlier on an Easy Align spree that I had not a clue as to where half of the target stars it was choosing were in the sky - and since I had to confirm the target I was less than confident that it would live up to its Easy name..

Anyhoo I thought that, discretion being the better part of valour, a manual Two Star alignment was best (how easily the technicalities trip off the tongue) - so all I had to do was wait until I could get a clear view of my target stars (Alcor and Rigel) and I would be all set, and this would probably be a good time to read the manual to see how this alignment was to be performed otherwise I might have a shortened night out.

Well time flying, as it is wont to do when one is enjoying ones self, my chosen targets became visible from my elected location so out I went scope in hand, nicely wrapped up against the cold and hoping the clouds would stay away long enough to get something done.

After the first bit of fumbling trying to get the tube more or less level and pointing sort of northish I pushed the relevant buttons on the controller, stood back and held my breath as I punched the Enter key to track onto Alcor...

Jeeze any second now the neighbours are goinf to be out with halogen flashlights demanding to know why I was using an electric drill at 11:30 at night! What a racket!

I kept telling myself that it probably wasnt as bad as I thought and that no one save me would hear it - then - it stopped - ooo I thought followed more or less instantly by ohoh - I don't know where it is pointing but it sure aint Alcor!

OK not to panic - I have read about this in the manual - just need to centre Alcor in the scope and press enter and it will correct.

But what is that new noise? A bleeping, squealy sort of siezed motor kind of sound and importantly why is the scope not moving when I push the manual slew button! Eek - did I break it?

Ah I thought to myself knowingly - nope you have just overtightened the clutches on the mount and choked the drill - so let's start again.

Off with the power, off with the locks and just tighten them enough to hold the tube but still allow the manual slew to work. Well that seemed ok - the scope slewed quite happily, if noisily, around the cosmos.

So back to alignment - home position, choose Alcor hit enter and slew, slew, quick, quick, slew...

And erm she stops short of the target again, but this time, this time I was ready springing into action with the manual slew to centre on the target (if I could find the darn thing) and - nothing the thing wouldnt slew then the strangled cat sounds like seized motors again.

Frustrated I powered it off, maybe I over did it on the clutch ajustment - does it need to be more loose still? Is there something wrong, will I have to return the scope - 101 questions on the same theme flooded my mind awash in a sea of alarm and disappointment.

After a few moments of pacing around the tripod clearing my mind I though to myself No I am not going to give up so easily - Ill have another go.

It's funny really how you get a flash of knowledge or inspiration semi-conciously - there I was having set the tube level and pointing more or less north when it struck me firmly between the eyes, I had even seen it, without quite realising when using the controller to test the slew after ajusting the clutch locks.

Talk about feeling a clutz! The beeping seizey noise (which was not terribly loud btw) was the flipping drive attempting to track the sidereal motion after settling on Alcor and the reason I couldnt slew to centre it manually was because it was set to adjust at 1x sideral rate a speed that to the untrained eye (mine) was synonymous with "static"!

So this time I resolved to just ignore the seizy noise and concentrate on getting Alcor where I wanted it - at the centre of the FOV (how quickly you pick up the jargon ).

So off I went sure enough right on cue the scope stopped somewhat short of the spot and started up its noise - ignoring it like a petulant child I set the slew speed to 0.5 deg/sec and waved the tube around until the tell tale pair of Alcor and Mizar swam into view - a quick re-focusing (I still can't get over how many twisty turns are needed for that) and I was ready to nudge Alcor into the sweet spot - once I had remembered the old left right swapping perversion of telescopes that is and then pow - pressed was the Enter button and the controller obediently waited for me to select my second alignment star!

Without any fuss I scrolled to Rigel and hit the button - the scope dutifully drilled its way south and pointed nowhere near Rigel, but after some flailing around the region and with a little help from my neighbour's drainpipe I managed, eventually, to centre it and thankfully pressed the button - "Alignment Successful" the controller winked at me and the scope continued on its beeping way.

Phew - that was a bit of a marathon but now the moment of truth - would it actually GOTO anywhere that I would recognise? I was about to find out. Expectantly I scrolled to Aldebaran and without further ado commanded the scope to GOTO!

Drill, drill, drill, pause - drill, drill and stop....

Peering through the eyepiece I saw it - it was there! truly that orange yellow star - could it be I thought still unwilling to place my trust in the machine but a moment or two later and a skoot around nearby and I was happy. Ill be blowed the drill put the target almost slap bang in the centre of the FOV! Result.

Right then - lets try Capella; And The Pleiades, and M42 oooh almost all target right in the middle of the scope and happily stayed there too so the traking is working fine (for visual obs at least) - hurrah - I was not a little impressed :)

But boy what a noise that drill makes even when slow tracking - hope the neighbours dont find out! To be honest it isnt quite so bad about 10 - 15 feet from the thing but still... (It seems that ETX's have something of a reputation for that so I will be content with it at that).

And then as an anticlimax the cloud started rolling in from the SW and flush with conquering Two Star Alignment and getting a little parky I recluctantly packed up and moved everything indoors afater about an hour of faffing and a little bit of GOTO observing.

Half an hour later, warmed up and watching late night TV I glanced out the window to see that it was crystal clear again - but by then it was too late - I couldnt face dragging all the gear out again - it would have to wait for another day...

So the chief lesson of the night seems to be patience and persistence pay off - not only in getting to grips with the technology but especially in dealing with the weather. (I am still waiting 'for another day' for the skies to clear!

Thus ends the tale of the newbie disturbing the peace at midnight with an electric drill...

:iamwithstupid: