Coffee Grinder Arrives in NZ !

[moondog]

My promised loan of a brand new CG5 GT mount arrived last night together with a brand new C8 XLT. Just like Christmas!

An astronomy newbie just over in New Zealand (where I am for next 6 months) asked for help at the local Nelson AS. They suggested he contact me to help - hence the loan in exchange for showing him the ropes.

Good solid looking tripod with EQ head and Go To motors and handset. Initial problem was that the instructions he'd got with the CG5 didn't agree with the handset. So basically binned the instructions and figured it out as I went on. Other problem was that he only had the car cigar connector lead and no battery. Lead wasn't really long enough to put scope in the right place. Put the C8 on the mount.

With no Pole Star in the Southern Hemisphere it wasn't easy to roughly polar align the scope. Got close enough by going half way between the stars Achenar and Beta Centauri.

Two star align and a calibration star got the mount running OK. Left the mount running tracking the moon while I went in for dinner. It was still tracking well when I came back out.

Turned the mount to look at the stars and got a reasonably bright star in the centre of the EP. Unfortunately the scope was out of collimation with 'teardrop' stars. The scope had about 2 hours cool down and there was no dew. I put the WO ZS66 in place of the C8 (it looked rediculous perched there) and the same star looked spot on. I will have to collimate the C8 as soon as possible, and all without 'Bob's Knobs'. Wish me luck !

8)

MD

[Brinders]

I'm sure you'll be okay, just be careful with that scewdriver!

[barkis]

How long do you have the scope for MD.? A stroke of good luck that is.

Can we expect any images via this outfit.? Be nice if we could.

I hope you get it setup well enough to get some decent subs.

Cheers Ron.

[moondog]

Brinders - with someone else's loan scope - you bet!

Ron - don't know really. The guy lives pretty close and the site behind my rented house is better for observing than his. He has to travel a lot for his work - staying over night and wants to take the scope with him in his camper van. So at worst I may only get the scope from Fri to Sun night.

If he's taking the scope on his travels he needs to learn to re-collimate the C8. He also needs to know the night sky better. This will take time !

I've still got the scope and when the full moon clears off I'll do some imaging with the ZS66 and when it's collimated the C8. Problem with imaging with the C8 is polar aligning the mount properly to enable decent tracking with a 2000mm FL scope. May be limited to short subs of globs - we'll have to see.

Should be clear tonight as at the moment it's a warm sunny day with no clouds. Pity it's a full moon - always seems to be clear when it's a full moon doesn't it ?.

8)

MD

[centroid]

I'm getting all excited for you John

Once you get the 'collim' sorted, your going to 'have a ball' down there 8)

I await the arrival of the first images.

Dave

[moondog]

Thanks Dave - you must be due to set off to Oz soon - when do you go ?

8)

MD