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Tonights viewing disaster

bomberbaz

By bomberbaz
in The Astro Lounge

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bomberbaz

bomberbaz

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Ok so went to the local obs but I think we had crossed wires and no-one was there. Ah well never mind I can set up and view while someone arrives.

Align goto, 1st attempt success, thats if Jupiter is in the plough!! 2nd go, success, erm similar result to 1st go.

Ok check all my settings, scope level, date, time, loacation all ok. Two star align, yeah success for real. Goto Jupiter, tad off but ok just fine tune and jobs a good one. Spent a little time viewing but the wind has started to pick up now and its getting a bit wobbly (puts gloves on). Ok lets goto Orion Nebula, and away we go, in the right direction but about 10 degrees off, 10 degrees is a little bit more than fine tuning. (put hood up now winds fair whistling) Soon found it using Telrad and finder scope. Viewing at about 80 times and views ok-ish,

Ok I want to get the goto working, thats what its job is. So try another 3 star alignment using at least 2 stars i recognise. Yes it worked, Jupiter here we come again and spot on, if I wait an hour for it to move 20 degrees or so to the right! What on earth is going on.

One last go, planetary using Jupiter as it has been a pain, maybe this will help. Result? similar to the above. Hands getting cold, hooter running and scopes near rattling in the wind now. .

Spent more time faffing with goto than viewing. Completlty forgot about my S&T sky atlas in my bag and could have had a little more viewing had I used that along with telrad and viewing scope. However the sky was nice and dark and I wanted the goto to give me a rich nights viewing of objects as per its job description. Time to go home

Got home and no wind at all. Why didnt i stay in garden, Funny thing is it worked perfect in the back garden on Wednesday night.

Still it is all about the learning curve and the curve made my eyes water tonight. Time to do some more reading and research to see if I am doing something wrong. Strange evening but not a complete disaster, saw a shooting star which was brilliant.

Baz

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jonathan

jonathan

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I had similar experiences with my 8SE Goto, spent more time restarting and aligning and feeling frustrated than enjoying seeing pretty things in the sky.

I doubt this kind of frustration is confined to the Celestron 8SE mount, my frustrations could also have been due to a low battery as it was at a time when I was new and knew little about these things.

Just happy that I elected to stay indoors tonight, as I stepped into thick fog in the garden at 10pm when I went to check the pond for newts, it looked relatively clear at 9pm.

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KJ Dalley

KJ Dalley

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Just happy that I elected to stay indoors tonight, as I stepped into thick fog in the garden at 10pm when I went to check the pond for newts, it looked relatively clear at 9pm.

Pond or sky! Hunting for newts sounds like fun in the fog!

:smiley:

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Ant

Ant

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Really sounds like a power issue to me. The only other issue that springs to mind is that if the target was constantly 15 degrees out, that could be the daylight saving time setting. The stars move 15 degrees in one hour.

Cheers

Ant

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skir

skir

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Sounds a bit like the first couple of times I went out . New to observing and my kit. First time couldn't focus on anything, which was down to the fact that the person I bought from didn't include the extension for the focuser in the sale and as a newb I didnt know it would then make the scope inoperable! Second time I had problems aligning which was down to my lack of knowledge of the night sky and having adjusted my finderscope the day before and forgotten to re-align it to the scope!

Third night armed with books, proper alignment and a telrad everything went fine, as did tonight. I may be getting somewhere......... :grin:

Had some lovely views of the moon and Jupiter tonight for a couple of hours and some star hopping from constellation to constellation just to learn the sky better. Then the clouds kicked in. No matter, it was good while it lasted. :smiley:

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bomberbaz

bomberbaz

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Third night armed with books, proper alignment and a telrad everything went fine, as did tonight. I may be getting somewhere......... :grin:

Had some lovely views of the moon and Jupiter tonight for a couple of hours and some star hopping from constellation to constellation just to learn the sky better. Then the clouds kicked in. No matter, it was good while it lasted. :smiley:

I think I need to take a leaf out of your book here and do a little more of this. I found Orion Nebula earlier without the goto and patted myself on the back for doing it. Ok not the hardest target but I managed with telrad and RAVF. Also I have been meaning to print of a conplete list of Messiers on telrad maps and laminate. I think I shall do this before my next viewing session.

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SnakeyJ

SnakeyJ

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Steve - heart goes out to you for that tale of woe - but a great piece of writing. If it's any consolation, I got myself setup/aligned before supper tonight, then shot out and promptly pulled the power lead out of my HEQ5 faffing around for EP's.

The wind was a real nuisance here as well. On the plus side you did get some observing in, which is a bonus after the recent cloud fest we've all enjoyed ;)

Jake

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skir

skir

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I think I need to take a leaf out of your book here and do a little more of this. I found Orion Nebula earlier without the goto and patted myself on the back for doing it. Ok not the hardest target but I managed with telrad and RAVF. Also I have been meaning to print of a conplete list of Messiers on telrad maps and laminate. I think I shall do this before my next viewing session.

I like your idea of laminated telrad maps, those could come in very handy. I saw the great Orion nebula last week for the first time, though I did use goto I must admit. However one thing I've learnt with goto is you need some knowledge of the night sky and it won't get you spot on something always, so a bit of hunting in the vicinity is required.

I think I will be investing in a RACI finder at some point too. I've found I tend to use the goto, then centre with the telrad, then use the finder to get in closer and then move onto the main scope, this method seems to work for me ok so far.

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earth titan

earth titan

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I like your idea of laminated telrad maps, those could come in very handy. I saw the great Orion nebula last week for the first time, though I did use goto I must admit. However one thing I've learnt with goto is you need some knowledge of the night sky and it won't get you spot on something always, so a bit of hunting in the vicinity is required.

I think I will be investing in a RACI finder at some point too. I've found I tend to use the goto, then centre with the telrad, then use the finder to get in closer and then move onto the main scope, this method seems to work for me ok so far.

Just be aware with laminated star maps, that they don't always show up under red torchlight. Test first.

Typed by me on my fone, using fumms... Excuse eny speling errurs.

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bomberbaz

bomberbaz

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Just be aware with laminated star maps, that they don't always show up under red torchlight. Test first.

Typed by me on my fone, using fumms... Excuse eny speling errurs.

I have just done one for now and will try it out tonight. Conditions are looking good
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bomberbaz

bomberbaz

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How did it go?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

Ok its not the reflectiveness thats the real issue, its the fact you viewing a series of red circles with a red light, not gonna work that is it? So I have printed out a couple of maps in greyscale and laminated them. They seem ok to me as long as you view the map from a slight angle so as not to have red torch light bouncing back in your face.

Baz

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