sidewind

Well it has been a few frustrating months. Mounts teasing me, working well during daytime, but at night ??? not so much.

Then the other day, I was a good samaritan *lol*, when I helped another astronomer that was in a bin. He had to move from house to a flat at 3 floor, and now his rig was to big for him, so he adverticed for a swap to a smaller one. He wanted what I had, an ETX125PE and swapped that for a LXD75 with a 10" Schmidt-newton. He even gave up a Hyperion 5mm.

Now I have a mount that runs, but I have gained another problem, backfocus, or lack of that when I use my 2" eyepieces.

Well that's life, you win some, you loose some.

To night was the night, clear skies, I had the mount out, done what I should before dark. Powered on the mount, put in all info, and choose a 3 star alignment.

Slewing to the first 2 stars, got them centered, and went on to the third, got it almost right (almost centered), and then the hand control freezed up, nothing to do other than try again, same result, after 4 tries, I choose a 1 star alignment, and for the next 3½ hour it just worked, Sirius, Jupiter, Andromeda, you name it, I got them more or less spot on.

Darn, have to play tomorrow on dry runs, to see if it is a combo with the last alignment star, or if it is the routine of 3 star alignment that is faulty.

Well, I didn't get the EQ5 updated, maybe I will just keep her with the old version.