Disappointment

[wookie1965]

Got out for a couple of hours had a nightmare did 3 star alignment would not give me a star in Orion or Taurus.

I use a zoom lens when I am aligning when I turned it down to 8mm and the Stars would not come into focus.

Eventually got to go to Mars that was awful a yellow smudge even in a 25mm and 15mm BST`s.

Even Mars was out when I went to it Taurus was a bit high so went for Monoceros went to Hagrid’s dragon nowhere in FOV went to Castor that was way out aligned that using PAE where you press escape then press and hold escape again centered that.

Tried Christmas tree dead on so went for Beta Mon I thought the was the big star at the bottom of the tree my scope took me away from that looked in viewfinder could make out one star with a tiny reddish brown companion looked at my notes said it was a triple so put 8mm in nothing went to Zeta mon could hardly see it looked up cloud rolling in so packed up I am now worried the Tal has something wrong with it as at higher mag the stars do not focus.

[jacobingonzo]

no techie but Ive heard reports from others unable to get decent focus- I think the seeing just now is plain and simple crap!!! we persevere as we must

Edited November 29, 2020 by jacobingonzo

[cotterless45]

You've hit a lot of variables here . The biggest one is transparency and seeing which with observing binaries will dominate proceedings. Synscan can be put out by random factors , it can be hit and miss.

Some nights stars are wobbling like coloured jelly , especially if the jet stream is over us . Other nights , there's a magic stillness that usually comes after midnight .Some nights Synscan can be bang on , and other nights you feel like chucking it away ! 

There are enough challenges to keep you busy , oh , I haven't added in clouds !

clear skies and "careful now ! " (Father Ted),

Nick.