Yay and Meh!

[bomberbaz]

I went out for a quick blast tonight with the aim of continuing my frac shootout, the Tee2 mount had other ideas. It decided to come loose somewhere inside so I wasn't able to mount my F12.5 80. 

Not sure of the issue because I decided to continue with just the ED100 but that was the "Meh!"    I will have a tinker later but pretty sure it will just be some loose bolt (I hope)

Also had a blast with a astro laser, cracking bit of kit for when you want to get at zenith without having to get contorted. 

The "Yay" was I decided to have a play around in my heavily light polluted back garden to see what it was capable of.  This was where my mood lifted.

Over to the worst area for LP, the east I still managed to pick out the galactic wanderer globular. Wasn't brilliant, but it was a hit.

Next I somehow found my way from Menkar, slowly picking my way up using the finder to bag Uranus. I have very few stars indeed to guide by the M1 eyeball so it is often hopping over large distances with a chart and the finder. Quite pleased with that.

Did a few other easy ones but decided to finish on Almach and shootout between a Svbony 6m UW, a BST 5mm and a 4mm Svbony aspheric.  These between them cost less than £100.  All gave increasing magnification of course from x150, 180 and finally 225. 

All three gave me lovely contrasting sharp views of the double. Well separated, no flaring as my glasses were of (sub 1mm exit pupil) but the svbony aspheric is a little belter. Can't believe such a good view can come from something costing 12 quid. marvellous.

I gave in at the end because the LP just dragged me down, plus my neighbours annoying security lamp kept on coming on time and again. 

Now going to dismantle the Tee2 head and see if I can fix it.

[RobertI]

24 minutes ago, bomberbaz said:

Also had a blast with a astro laser, cracking bit of kit for when you want to get at zenith without having to get contorted. 

Nice report Steve, shame about the Skytee though - I'm sure its fixable. Where did you get your laser from?I bought a set of mini-rings years ago but never got around to the laser for it, so would be good to know.

[bomberbaz]

1 hour ago, RobertI said:

Nice report Steve, shame about the Skytee though - I'm sure its fixable. Where did you get your laser from?I bought a set of mini-rings years ago but never got around to the laser for it, so would be good to know.

First off skytee fixed. It was iindeed some grub screws that had either become loose or possibly worn. I shall keep my eye on it and if it works loose again, I shall replace grub screws with stainless steel quality ones. 

Next the laser was from OpticStar. It is legal and I don't have it constantly on. I flash it on, drop onto where I want to be and switch the laser back off. The cold causes these batteries to fade very quickly.

I tried a handwarmer tonight to keep the batteries from giving up but that didn't really work. I have a 20cm eyepiece warmer USB dew tape on order, hoping that will work better. 

Link here Opticstar/Ascension Green Laser Pointer 5mW