Poor evening turned good in the end

[grjsk]

7. september, 2022: Langhus, Norway (60°N, 11°E) – Bortle 6 - seeing and transparency: Pickering 8/Magnitude 4.3

Equipement: C6 and 72 mm doublet, Az-gti, 32mm Plossl, Baader mark IV zoom, Tele Vue 3-6mm zoom

 

 

I took my dusty C6 for a spin last night. It hasn’t been used in years, and I have moved house several times since then, so I guessed the collimation would be way off, so that was the first order of business. In-focus was good, while out-focus was slightly off. Is that normal, that one is okay, but not the other? I tweak it for a little bit but seem unable to get both perfect. I stop when both are decent.

Unfortunately, my AZ-GTI is not in a good mood this evening. Perhaps it is because I am used to using a small frac with a great fov, but I seem to not be able to find any of the double stars in Ursa Major that I have planned to look at. Perhaps it needs a firmware update, I haven’t done that in a while.

I give up and starts slewing to targets I already know.

Jupiter doesn’t look very good. Two bands are clearly visible, but it looks rather soft. Sort of washed out. Bad seeing perhaps? I slew to Polaris to make an estimation. I struggle with the focus a bit, not being used to the crude adjustments. I seen to be unable to get it just right. Pickering 4-5 perhaps?

I move on to the double double, but I am unable to make the split. The view is messy and horrible. Collimation perhaps? And bad seeing and a crude focuser as well? I give up and decides to pack up. I decide to give the small refractor a few minutes before I go though. Boom. Instant split. Pinpoint round stars. Fainter than in the C6 of course, but everything just looks better. Seeing is actually rather good. I retire, satisfied with the evening after all.

I’m not blaming the C6 here. It most likely was user error. Either the collimation, or poor focusing. Or both. But I love me some fracs, that’s for sure.

[Knighty2112]

I always find that the views in my C8 are rather soft too even when seeing is good, so when observe now I tend to use one of my 4 ‘fracs now, mostly the AA 80ED which is easy to carry out and set up either on my alt-az manual mount, or my Celestron 6/8SE goto mount.

[Stu]

Sounds like a frustrating evening @grjsk. How long did the SCT have to cool down? They can take a while, particularly if taken from warm to cold ambient temperatures. That would definitely cause poor views.

I share your love of the simplicity and sharpness of refractors though 😀👍

[grjsk]

It is stored in a shed outside, and the temperature was stable for the 90 min I was outside, so I don't think that was the issue. There were some dew, put I used a dewshield. I guess that towards the end it could have become a problem, but I didn't really notice any.