Found a gap in the weather, so first light with Altair Astro 102

[jonathan]

I was going to go out, then I saw clouds on the horizon so stayed in, then at about 11pm I looked out and it was clear, a chance to get out!  So I did.

This is the first time I've had my Altair Astro 102 triplet on the mount, probably should have played with it a bit during daylight hours, hey ho.  Fitted the finder mounting bracket and the finder - a very nice finder it is too (it's the Altair 10x60 with illuminated cross-hair). 

After learning how to balance the scope with all of the kit attached I decided to go straight for the moon, as it was about 2/3 full and washing out the rest of the sky anyway.  Besides the turbulence from the nearby houses I was suitably impressed - a nice clean image with only a tiny bit of colour fringing on the brightest edges, this may be due to me not using the correct moon filter for this scope.  I moved on the Pleiades, a beautiful sight!  The stars shone white and blue, and looked great in the 25mm eyepiece; I swear I could see more pin pricks in the 25mm than with my 8SE, though it's been a while so I may be imagining that. That's something else I may need to look at, as I don't think my eyepieces are really doing the scope justice (even if it's only by a relatively small margin, I get the feeling the scope is capable of more).

A bit of random sweeping, Andromeda, Cassiopeia, and back to Pleiades.  It was getting rather chilly by now and my choice of jumper and fleece was proving inadequate so I called it a night.  The moon was busy setting between the houses and was by this time shrouded by a thin cloud bank.

The scope looks great on the white CG-4 mount, and the CG-4 seems to hold it brilliantly.  If I can get to grips with polar alignment I may even be able to get some photographs using this set up.

A successful first light for my new scope, yay!