Awaiting first light.....

[JB80]

Firstly I would like to give a big thank you to Ken(Merlin66) without whom I wouldn't have this set up and I would still be trying to get the gold tube of the PST off.

This morning I paid Ken a visit and we set about separating the gold tube as he had the right tools for the job so I could add it to the 90mm Meade when I got home. It was good to learn a bit more about my PST too, the prism was in good enough shape and the blocking filter seems to be a decent one and now I know what to do if I need to adjust the etalon but I doubt I do although the o-rings need replacing.

Anyway the good part was the Meade was ready to go as I got it from Ken already cut to shape and all I had to do was attach the nose piece and it was ready.

I managed to get in enough viewing time(about 2 minutes) to start bringing it all to focus and the clouds rolled in so fingers crossed for tomorrow I can get my first real light with my 88mm PST mod.

Worst part was the sun came out after it had dropped below the trees.

A couple of things I will need to do though and one is make a finder for it. I'm thinking a little jobby made from a biro tube should be OK enough until I come up with something better and I need to attach the motor drive to the mount and I should be right to go.

[Viv]

Nice bit of worth there (both of you).

Is the sun out for you today ??

Looking forward to hearing about it.

[JB80]

Thanks, the sun was a bit of in and out at first but the last couple of hours have been really good. I've just been and had a good nearly two hours observing and it's was quite good.

Definitely a marked improvement on the original PST. Although it took me quite a while to get in the swing of it again, I think the image might be brighter a bit but that might just be an illusion of the larger aperture but certainly once you hit the spot it is generally easier to hold your vision on the detail just pops out at you. The overall disc seemed more of an even brightness as well but that could again just be because it's easier to hold your vision.

Overall it was a great session, I started off with the Hyperion zoom but quickly changed to a 20mm celestron eyepiece to resist the urge to keep on changing, it was good to watch the big prom on the west(in the eyepiece) change and the two smaller proms develop on the opposite side into something resembling tornados.

So in short I'm well chuffed with the mod and can't wait to hook up the camera, hopefully I can sort out the tracking as that wasn't the best today.

Another nice touch I noticed today on the telescope was this sticker...

It made me smile.

[Viv]

Brilliant warning label !!

Sounds nice, look forward to the images.

[JB80]

It's a great label, I didn't notice it at first.

Hopefully I can sort out good enough tracking to get some avis, I'm looking forward to it too.

[JB80]

I've been having another decent session today, this time there is more to see and I'm really noticing the improvement.

It's quite amazing although I'm still having a mare with alignment and tracking.

Still it's great to be observing while I can.