First Light - C9.25/CGEM - rather log post

[ScubaMike]

Managed (finally!) to get out with my new kit last night and despite it being a "school day", managed to get lost in time until about 1am.

Inital mount set up was done in daylight. I moved the Az centring peg so that it was over one leg (same as old EQ5 set up). This allowed me to use the washers I has epoxied to the patio to get approximate polar alignment. Just required a bit of fiddling to get the tripod height right.

Both Altitude & Azimuth adjustment bolts are easy to grip, a big improvement.

The altitude adjustment dial was much more readable that my old EQ5 - how accurate it is remains to be seen.

Scope was mounted & balanced. Scope was as far forward in the dovetail as I could move it to get balance, but it was possible without additional weights on the tube. RA balance was not possible with the supplied weights (I have 2x 17lb weights not 1x 17 & 1x 11). I got round this by using one of the weights from the EQ5.

Then left for a few hours to cool-down.

I fired up the scope once the summer triangle were all visible (about 10pm) as I assumed that these would be used for initial alignment. The handset was not initially instinctive. I kept trying to use the arrow keys to move in the menu instead of the 6 & 9 keys for up/down. This is something I'll get used to I'm sure.

Initial configuration was easy (I had looked up my precise location earlier in the day). Swing to first alignment star. Had a huge amount of movement to get focus, was so bad I checked I had removed the objective cap! But, got there in the end.

First selected alignment star was Arcturus. Found star easily enough in the field of the finderscope. Adjustment was easy, first in the finder (coarse adjustment, then in the supplied 25mm EP (the mount automatically switched to fine adjustment). Second alignment star presented was Dubhe, again the adjustment was straighforward. I then selected Vega as a third calibration star. Slewed to almost spot on, so much so that I accepted the finder adjustment and moved straight to the fine adjustment. Very little to do there either. It was at this point I realised that an illuminated recticule EP would be really helpful - will get one soon.

I then tried to use the all-star polar alignment. Got lost in the menus and was unable to select a star to polar align from. Gave up in the end as it was getting late and I wanted to see what the view was like! (I came back to this later - see below).

I began by moving to the "Tour" option and selecting various objects. Goto was quite poor, I found I had to adjust every object. I then realised that I had not precisely pointed north, I had only coarsely adjusted the Alt, and not adjusted the AZ at all.

I therefore went back & persevered with the All-star alignment routine. Eventually found it (not entirely sure I know the exact menu path I took, but I'll find it again and make a mental note, and maybe update this post for future reference). Polar alignment was a breeze. I found I could look through the EP and still reach the adjustment bolts. Again, a recticule EP would have helped. I was a huge amount out in AZ, and less so in Alt (so the Alt markings on the mount are not that accurate)

I then decided to go back to the tour and see what improvements this had made to the goto accuracy. Huge difference. Most objects were close to the centre of the EP, many dead centre as far as I could tell. Some objects were not identifiable (but I guess that uranus wouldn't be under 94x mag )

viewd a few objects - Mizor was easily split, but didn't manage to split Epsilon Lyrae into all four - probably due to my focus issues, more on this below.

I then decided to have a look at Jupiter, as he was now up. Terrible viewing conditions, and focusing was really difficult. I remembered someone (Brantuk?) posting about using a clothes pegs as a cheap fine focuser, so decided to try this. This did make life easier, but I still think the focus will need an upgrade (suggestions will be welcomed). I did approach focus from the same direction each time (anti-clockwise) as advised in the manual.

I quickly put the SPC900 up and tried to focus (I didn't Barlow it), again this was shockingly difficult, I thought I had a fairly light touch, but had real difficulty getting anthing sharp. While viewing was far from good, I expected to get a little better focus than I did. Did manage to get baning in the clouds, but no colour to speak of. This may be better once I barlow the webcam, but conditions were so poor, I didn't think it worth persevering.

By this time the Moon was also up. so I slewed via the handset and switched to optical. Wow !! Fabulous views, focus seemed easier - still not perfect, but much closer. Makes me think that viewing was quite a factor in the earlier problems. I switched back to the SPC900 and got focus quickly (getting a bit more practiced at this now). Sharpcap seemed to capture some detail, but it was a little high magnification for my liking. I have not bought a specific SCT focal reducer yet, but had a 0.5x reducer I used in the 150PL. On the spur of the moment, I put the reducer in and got reasonable results.

By this time it was 1am, I had to take down the equipment and get some sleep (leave for work at 6am!).

Initial reactions:-

Mount setup routine will take some getting used to, but nothing insurmountable (pun not intended).

Was impressed by the all-star alignment - scope seemed to track nicely after polar alignment.

Goto, after being initially disappointed, I was quite happy with this. Maybe once I get the PA routine properly sorted I will be better able to comment.

Focusing - dreadful. I must be much heavier handed than I thought. I had expected much better focusing over the R&P of the 150PL, but I can honestly say I get better focus on the 150PL than I do on the C925 (OK, F8 vs F10, but the difference was huge). I really need some suggestions as to upgrades for the focusing. I have a Bahtinov on the way, so knowing where focus is won't be difficult, just achieving it!

Optics - difficult to say. Seeing was not good, but the Moon was stunning. I'll leave an open verdict on Jupiter.

All in all, it was nice to get out after so much cloud, but was a steep learning curve. Hoping for better next time.