First light with the Celestron 127 SLT Mak

[Tyr]

Well actually first and second light

It's been just over a week since the scope arrived from FLO and after a frustrating wait for the clouds to clear I was able to grab an hours clearish skies on Tuesday evening.

At about 9 o'clock I got the mount setup and level, attached the OTA and left it all to cool down while I waited for it to get dark.

I then spent a bit of time slewing the scope around manually trying to use the RDF to try and line the scope up on Saturn after a lot of misses I eventually got it and was then able to line up the RDF correctly with the scope. The view was great and switching to the 9mm EP from the 25mm was still nice and steady, although Saturn was drifting as the mount doesn't track until you've aligned the Goto. This was the next task, and as it turned out remarkably painless.

I've been using the named two star alignment procedure going by stars I know from previous nights with the planisphere and binoculars. It's not spot on and drifts a bit over the course of the session, but it's still consistently getting within the FoV of the 25mm EP (about 0.9 degrees). I could probably get the alignment better by re-aligning at higher magnifications and adjusting the Longitude and Latitude to be a little more accurate (need to rtfm for that one).

I just about had time to check out the Beehive, something I was familiar with from the bins to check it was working. Then the clouds pressed in and so I packed up and waited for another evening.

That was it until Saturday when the clouds parted and for a change didn't reappear at dusk leaving me with a good couple of hours observing time.

Using the two star align again I got the goto setup pretty quickly and had another look at Saturn, it was a bit windier though and the image of Saturn was a bit unsteady using the 9mm EP.

This time I noticed a small . in the same plane as the rings a small distance away from Saturn which I think was one of the moons although I need to check that out still.

I then tried a few targets from turn left at orion which I reckoned to be within the area of sky visible from my back garden location (broadly south south west), with varying success.

Trying for things around Ursa Major was a little problematic though as the scope kept giving me slew warnings when I tried the goto which I was too scared of to ignore, even though I'd manually slewed it to the position I thought the object should be. I think it might be worried that a longer scope is on the mount.

At the end of the night M13 appeared around the side of the house and I got a great view of it with the 25mm EP as a roughly circular diffuse patch of light although I found it much harder to focus on with the 9mm EP I don't think the air movement was helping.

All in all I'm very happy with both the scope and the maplin power tank I got to run it and am looking forward to my next observing session. I can't wait to get a chance to use it for some Lunar observing.

Tyr

[Astro Imp]

Hi Tyr,

Well done mate, it's great when you get the first view through your own scope.

You seem to be getting on real well and having a great time.

Clear skies.

[Ad Astra]

Hello Tyr!

Great job - don't worry, your alignment skills will continue to improve!

I'm sure you did see a moon near Saturn - here's how to check with Stellarium.

1. Set Stellarium for the time and date of your observing session.

2. find Saturn and click on it - then press the spacebar to keep it centered.

3. Use the mouse scroll wheel to zoom in (this takes a bit of scrolling - it's a billion miles away!)

4. The Moons should appear on the screen labeled in their correct orientations. You may have to adjust for the inverted view in your scope, but the pattern of Moons should be distinctive. Remember that Titan is the one you are most likely to see, and that some moons appear quite far away from Saturn!

You can download my Saturn Observer's log by clicking <HERE>, it will help you keep track of your observations at the eyepiece so you can accurately check them later.

Dan

[Tyr]

Thanks Dan I'll certainly try that with Stellarium.

Your observer sheet looks great I'll give it a go on my next session

Tyr

[M4lcs67]

Good call, Tyr,

You seem to be at the same stage that I am at (Bought my 127 SLT a few weeks ago). Unfortunately the weather has put the skids on my stargazing for the past few days due to it being pretty lousy. Once it improves however I'll be back out. I may even get up at stupid O'clock and try and get Venus and Jupiter before the Sun comes up.

[Tyr]

Thanks for the advice on the power tank Malc, I went for the same one you're using.

It's looking like it might be clear tonight here :hello2:so I'm going to have a go at getting the GOTO a bit more accurately setup, I came across a couple of good threads on the SkyMax 127 user group about balancing and leveling the scope which I'm going to try, I've also got a GPS app for my phone to give me a better fix on longitude and latitude.

I'm toying with the idea of getting up in the middle of night to have a look at the moon but I'll see how things go.

Hope the weather clears up with you soon.

Tyr