First light in outskirts of Doncaster

[klytus]

Kit used:

Me: Nexstar 8SE with Revelation eyepieces

Celestdon: CPC1100 with 40mm eyepiece plus eyepiece swapping with each other

Weather condtions:excellant, clear skies about 10C (i'd say about 2-3 on Stellarium view conditions not a perfect dark sight but good enough plus we had the moon which was surprisingly bright.)

Setup about 30 mins before sunset

Things i learned last night:

1/ Raise the damn mount high enough so i don't feel my back is broken this morning

2/ Wear warm clothes idiot here thought he'd be okay with a thin jacket,hence this morning i can barely move due to my arthritis.

3/ NEVER use batteries with a 8SE, in my excitement to do first light with my 8SE i could'nt wait for my power tank to finish charging and used batteries instead. Told scope to slew to 'Andromeda' went opposite direction, then instructed 'Moon' again it went off in a completely different direction.Tried to slew manually nothing so decided batteries have given up the ghost..i hope (testing shortly).

4/ Get a dew shield sorted asap,mine had packed in see above but Alan (Celestdon) on his CPC1100 was running fine till we noticed the 'Orion Nebula' was not as clear as before,thought very odd and put it down to me putting torch on (find your red light Steve!!) and losing night vision. Then i noticed my revelation case felt damn told Alan who laughed and told me to come look at front of his scope,it was coverered in dew which honestly we did not think would happen last night..GAME OVER

All in all brilliant night with several lessons learned saw 'Orion Nebula oh! what a sight to behold i could'nt stop looking at it its so beautiful,'Pleides Cluster,Jupiter,Moon and 'Mars' (bit of a washout that one ) to name a few. Must admit Alan's CPC is one fantatic piece of kit, the views and sharpness were amazing but my scope is still a thing of beauty and gives good results.

Will we go out again...damn straight