First Light -- a Long Time Coming!

[leebca]

It was quite the struggle.  Some of you may remember my introduction:  http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/195502-drowning-in-glory/   This will bring you further up to date.

The 14" Meade LX850 telescope was received, but I didn't manage to get the pier for it.  The scope was left garaged and still in its shipping packaging.  I was about to acquire a used one, when I was told that my observatory was the one next door -- not the one I had the key for and had taken the pad measurements on.  The 'real observatory' had a different pad configuration.  The used pier would not fit it.  Decided to have one built, but the builder (Le Seuer) had never built one for this new Meade mount (LX850).

In the meantime, had the observatory roof insulated and re-designed to open using a garage door opening device.  It was painted and the electrical worked on.  The electrical was a bit of a mess, actually.  Each of the 6 outlets ran back to the box where the hot wire came into the observatory, rather than in series, or what we say 'in a daisy chain.'

So, I had to disassemble the tripod and send the top of the pod across the USA to the builder, so he could build the top of the pier to match the mount.  A month later, the new pier was shipped.  Within 50 miles of the delivery, the train the pier was on had a derailment.  As things got sorted out (I think that's what you Brits say!) my 'pier' was split into two shipments.  One arrived quickly (the head of the pier) and the other, the pier itself, slowly found its way to me.  Fortunately, it was unharmed -- in new condition.

Installed the pier and ran electrical to the post.  Then, finally on a separate day, setup the scope.  Each of the three balance weights were 26 pounds (11.8 kg).  It was a two-man job, (despite what Meade claims!).

'Woke up' the GoTo computer.  "Good morning Dave. . ."

The scope went to its home position and then wanted/waited to be aligned.  The mount and scope was pointing to the celestial north pole and that will be a constant, so that part of the alignment (aligning the mount) will never need repeating as long as it stays there.  Finder scope was matched to the eyepiece view.  Then the scope, through its internal GPS, located itself on the planet and loaded in its position, date, and time, automatically.  Next, the scope was aligned, on a single star.  It slewed to another bright star of its choosing and asked me to verify it was properly aligned.  I confirmed.

Unfortunately two things became clear -- the roof needed to move further back so that I could have more of the north sky to observe  (Polaris was seen).  The second was that a tree stretched close to Polaris.  Not only too tall, the tree was in the way of having the roof move further back.

Venus was up so I did a GoTo Venus.  The scope goes through these motions/movements:

1.  The StarLock Widefield OTA quickly slews the scope into the general part of the sky of the object;

2.  The StarLock Narrowfield slowly slews the scope onto a nearby star (which could be invisible to the unaided eye and located even during dusk);

3.  The scope uses the nearby star to adjust its alignment, then very slowly slews the scope on the object; and

4.  Lastly, the scope focuses itself to the object.

Looking into the eyepiece (41mm 82 degree Explore Scientific) Venus was dead center!  The StarLockk system keeps checking back with the star it chose to be its guide and makes tiny corrections to the alignment as needed.

Did a GoTo to M31, the Andromeda Galaxy.  After going through the same steps and finding its new 'guide star' the scope settled -- dead on!  Andromeda was breathtaking!  It filled the eyepiece.  It wasn't just a smudge.  It was a well defined disk with a relatively bright center and the gaseous arms stretched out. 

Exhausted (but thoroughly enthused!) I gave up for the night.  Put the scope in its park position.  Covered it.  This was Tuesday Nov 5, 2013.  Got permission to trim (but not destroy) the tree.  Ordered additional parts for the roof modification.  Also, waiting to see if the club wants to make any change to the electrical situation.  Not up to our code the way it is now.

Anyway, couldn't stay away!  I went to the observatory Wednesday and spent the night there with the scope.  Woke up the scope and it didn't require further alignment.  It remembers its alignment.  Did a Sync just to fine tune it, and it was back to its normal routine.  Looking at a few objects -- getting to know the scope and its ability was most of the night.  Slept in our club's house and returned home.

Below is a photo I took of the scope in its home position.  Hope this report was of some interest!  Thanks for reading.

LEE

[Zuben Elgenubi]

First light may have been a long time coming, but it sounds as though it was worth waiting for.

It looks like you have a fantastic set up that will provide many nights of amazing observing. Enjoy, and keep us posted 

[baggywrinkle]

Very nice first light report......train derailment ! mmm must use that one with my customers...;-)

[faulksy]

very very nice set up, as you say long time coming but worth it. i love those scopes, would love a 12" lx200