1st succesfull night for half a year!

[dave1978]

Well late afternoon arrived and the skies were crystal clear, i kept my fingers crossed that the clear weather would hold until dark. Well 8:30pm arrived and all was clear so out i went!

In the past i have had trouble with aligning my Nexstar 102Slt so i made special effort to ensure all was bang on. I used the auto-2-star align, started with Capella and went through the process, selected M31 as my alignment test and to my relief there it was just off centre. Not too sure if it was my location or conditions but it seemed quite a lot dimmer than i remember it being last time is saw it.

Then onto the double cluster! what a beauty! switched to the 9mm to oggle each cluster independantly, the detail was astounding, truly one of the highlights of my hobby so far.

Next i went for Bode's galaxy, i wasnt expecting to see much if anything but to my supprise there it was, a tiny faint smudge against the background just visible! MY MOST DISTANT DSO YET

Then it was just a tour around Pleiades, back to M31 and so on.

Proper chuffed, bring on winter! looking forward to those dark cold clear nights!

[stefski]

Nice one. I felt just like you last night, though it was a little hazy where I was. Had great fun with my Meg 72.

Stef

[jgs001]

Nice one Dave. Glad you got the NexStar working