well, last night, the sun had shone during the afternoon - after the hailstorm! - so it was with anticipation that the journey home occured.

I got home just after dark, read the info about setting up the GO-TO function, had supper and outside i went, well wrapped up, cold wasnt a problem. I carried the scope onto the common and went through the set up procedure. The long and lat were expressed in different ways, but i got round that. Had difficulty reading the script on the hand set. is this because I am colourblind? so used white light from my torch, to be fair, spending some time out there, I realised just how non-dark it is, will have to find some better viewing sites.

Anyhow, aligned first star, Polaris - thought that was the right thing to do, and then two more and the scope said I had done the setup correctly, AND First time!! I picked sky tour and it took off, during this I acceidentally knocked the tripod so dont know if this was why i didnt see anything when it stopped, didnt think i had moved it. It was tring to show me M54 i think, anyhow somewhere northish and there was some cloud cover.

I fiddled with the controls and choose Jupiter, it slewed around and Jupiter was just out of the scope but ith a little hunting i found it and wow! there it was, with its cloud rings and three definite moons, no eye, but i know i would have seen that if it had been there. I spent about 20 minutes trying to look with my periferal vision. then a cloud belt came in.

Impression: Although i had memorised the setup procedure, i dont know the computer well enough to go into and out of GOTO mode, it is quite intuative, but not completly. I also need to have a map book with me so I know what i am supposed to be looking at etc. I can see why people can get turned off at this stage because it is quite daunting. but i promised myself patience, so lets practice what i preech.

AND it is supposed to be a better night tonight!