Cue the clouds...

[Daz1974]

I've just taken delivery of a rather large box delivered to my work address, I wonder what it could be

There's a decent amount of blue sky out there at the moment here in North Herts. However, I fully expect thick grey fluffy stuff to roll in by 7pm this evening.

Apologies in advance....

[Quark]

It was a bit clear here early on this morning, but now it's raining

A curse it be!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[M4lcs67]

Go on then. Spill your guts. What have you been buying????????

[Daz1974]

After much deliberation I decided on the Skywatcher 130p synscan goto as my first scope. The 200p dob seriously challenged it but at the current point in time it would just be too impractical to use.

Hopefully in a year or two when we've moved to a bigger house with a bit more storage space a dob my find its way into my possession.

[Dubbs75]

Congrats on the scope - and at least we have another new scope owner to blame the weather on

[faulksy]

congratulations mate hope its clear for you tonight

[matsey]

Damn it ! Was hoping for some clear skies this weekend, I had an early morning appointment on Saturday with the Orion Nebula !!! :D

Seriously though, congrats on the new scope, sure you're going to have a great time with it

[Charon]

So it's your fault then, because it is raining here too!!!

[M4lcs67]

Nice piece of kit. I was up in the early hours last week before this lousy weather decided to put the block on things. Had a brilliant sesh. Bagged a load of objects for the first times including the Orion nebular.

ps Currently precipitation 100% here in Yorkshire:(

[Daz1974]

Sorry people, I cannot be held accountable for rain.

When I first posted this thread this morning there were blues skies and the odd wispy white cloud floating about.

Now, thick grey cloud covering 100% as far as the eye can see.

I can probably be accountable for that!!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

A 130 mm should not be too bad. Now had anyone bought a 16" dob or similar HUGE investment, cloud cover would be an absolute certainty!

Nice purchase Daz, should provide a lot of fun, once the clouds are gone.

[Darkstomper]

Congrats on the new scope! Can feel the excitement from here. Are you at work still and can't fiddle yet?

[Daz1974]

Yea, still at work, although doing very little apart from watching youtube vids on how to setup the scope, finding posts on here offering the same advice (found a great one from 2009 which I'll be re-reading tonight as I go through the setup)

Im still waiting for the power cable to connect the mount to the maplins PSU, so for the time being bought some batteries, not that I am likely to be using them tonight

Apps installed on phone, stellarium on laptop

pretty much all set, just need a bit of time to unpack and assemble everything then a break in the clouds to test my alignment skills for the GoTo

[Darkstomper]

Which Maplins PSU did you get?

I have dabbled with Stellarium but it ties knots in my brain when I try to do anything advanced so far..more practice I think is needed.

[Daz1974]

I got the 3-in-1 PSU that has been on offer recently for £19.99

To be honest, if I can just get the scope setup and pointed at the moon and/or Jupiter over the next couple of nights I'll be happy with that to start.

[Astro Imp]

Congratulations on the new scope, you are in for some serious good times when the clouds allow.

Enjoy.

[Daz1974]

Just unpacked the lot despite the rain and clouds I thought I'd have a look and setup indoors.

Unpacked the tripod, went to extend the legs and the plastic tightening bracket is split and cannot be tightened.

Fired off an email to the retailer to see what they can do. hopefully they can do something without having to send everything back and making me wait even longer.

what a great start!!!

[Darkstomper]

Daz, did you get any joy with sorting your problems? Are you unable to use it at present?

[Daz1974]

I sent opticstar an email last night and had a reply from them before 9am this morning.

They apologised and said they will get on to the supplier and either send out a replacement leg that I can fit myself or if thats not available they'll collect the tripod and replace it with a new one, however this could take up to 14 days.

I sent a photo with the email last night and the chap who replied to me this morning did say that I could continue to use it while a replacement leg/tripod is sorted. Im not quite sure I want to just in case the whole thing gives way and causes any more damage. All of this is irrelevant anyway as its still blumming cloudy down here so couldnt use it even if I wanted to!!

[Daz1974]

Well as if by magic, about an hour after I posted that last reply the clouds over Stevenage started to clear and the bright moonlight flooded the back garden.

So, I unpacked the boxes that I had carefully repacked last night thinking I may have to send it all back and set the scope up taking extra care to make sure the tripod was going to be ok and not collapse on me.

Took about 10 mins to set up and didnt bother trying the alignment setup or even attaching the finder scope - staright to the moon, might as well have a look through that as its pretty easy to find!!

It looked pretty good through the 25mm, and after a bit of messing about i got a decent view through the 10mm. Played around with adding the barlow and seeing what that does and finally adding the moon filter (which certainly made a difference and took the edge off)

So after a bit of messing around looking at the moon I manually moved the scope to Jupiter and faffed about with that for a bit.

After this I thought id have a go at the aligning. Attached the finder scope, ignoring all the advice about aligning it in daylight, i went straight for jupiter and done it via that.

Went into the alignment menu on the handset, starting at jupiter, then went to Capella as the first star. Got it reasonable close then went to polaris for the 2nd star. Again get it there or thereabouts (I am only doing this out of curiosity tonight) and thats the alignment process sorted.

So, seeing as Jupiter was a pretty obvious target to go for entered the handset menu and told it to go to jupiter, by the time it had finished doing its thing it was near(ish) and was just about in view with the 25mm. Was quiet impressed considering how slack I was during the alignment process. Messed around with looking at jupiter again for a bit.

So after that I thought Id see how close it would be if I told it to find plieades. (i can recognise that) and again, saw plieades wizz by in the finder scope and the scope ended up with it just outside the FOV, Pretty impressed, so far.

After that I packed up and come in. It was nearly 10pm and Im still out there in shorts and t shirt and its gettign a bit chilly.

So, tomorrow, weather allowing I'll be doing a more thorough, precise alignment and see how it goes.

My biggest thing at the moment is being steady enough at the eyepiece and getting my eyes used to what it should be seeing. Having my contacts in for over 12 hours probably hasnt help that though tonight!!

All in all a pretty satisfactory first night with the new scope