Old new guy

[Alan White]

Welcome to SGL.
Whichever side of the pond we live on we all have Stargazing in common.
 

[Luna-tic]

On ‎6‎/‎26‎/‎2017 at 12:41, Alan White said:

Welcome to SGL.
Whichever side of the pond we live on we all have Stargazing in common.
 

Same Declination, same Right Ascension, no matter where we are.

 

On that note, My C6 was delivered today. I felt as giddy as the Christmas when I was 5 and got the big fire truck I wanted. I got the scope on the mount and balanced in basic form, then added my T-mount and camera to see how the balance changed.  Surprisingly little; my Nikon is the lightest of their DSLR's, a good thing. This evening as it got dark, I went to my back lawn next to the garden and set the scope up. It wasn't dark enough yet for Polaris to show, so I used my compass and added the current declination, I'd already set my latitude. Got a rough polar alignment and aimed at the Moon. Took a couple of minutes to get it in the eyepiece, then I aligned my viewfinder to the center of the crescent. Tried my two lenses and Barlow out. I have also installed a reducer/corrector to the telescope, flattens the field and opens the focal ratio from f/10 to f/5.6, but of course decreases magnification. Didn't matter tonight, though, the Moon's crescent filled the eyepiece at 12mm without the 2x Barlow.

I then swung the scope over to Jupiter, my viewfinder adjustment was perfect. With the crosshair on the planet, it was in the field of view at 24mm. I'm using a Celestron 8-24mm zoom eyepiece, plus I have the 25mm Plossl that came with the scope. The color bands and 3 moons were clearly visible. I was sort of surprised that Jupiter appeared as large as it did, considering I'd cut my magnification by about 40% with the reducer. I'll have to dial it up again without the reducer, and see how it looks. Tonight I was just getting a rough idea what I can expect with this scope, and I'm entirely amazed and satisfied. My rough polar alignment was pretty darn close, as the planet moved across my field of view, I could track it with the R.A. continuously, and maybe every fifth adjustment, I'd have to move the declination a little to get back on track. Later I'll go for a precise one, and try out the R.A motor drive.

Next task is really to get my ducks aligned for the upcoming solar eclipse in August. I'm in the 96-97% zone, I plan to travel two hours to my brother-in-law's house, where I'll get 2-1/2 minutes of totality.