I managed to get out, debrief.

[LondonNeil]

I'm not sure this would go here or in getting started..   its as much me going over what I'm doing to try and get it straight and iron out the mistakes as it's a report on what I saw... in fact it's probably best described as a report or debrief on my performance.   Comments welcome,  hopefully they will help me.

 

I managed to get out!  First time in April I think and still only my 8th or so session since getting my kit back in January, possibly my third session with the az gtix mount and first light on a few eps. With 3 young kids and the rubbish weather, having to buy some new bits and being ill for ages its been challenging....and i thought this hobby would be simple as i could do it from/close to home! NOTE to self,  don't give up,  it does work sometimes. 

Id been watching clear outside and the bbc weather app and Sunday night looked promising for a session once the kids were in bed.  This would be my first solo session without any of the kids to manage or someone else to try and show something.... what i needed  a chance to relax,  go at my own pace, try stuff and learn! Kids in bed and asleep by 9pm I'm popping outside to check....gaps in the clouds but still a lot of cloud....several checks later I'm considering writing it off and slumping on the sofa with a gandt instead.....i couldn't face getting all set up to be frustrated by clouds and clear outside had just downgraded to red!  Just after 10 I did a last check and it looked a little better...i'll give it a try i said to my wife.  I grabbed the gear about 2210 as the clouds were parting, and walked to the small green and relatively dark spot at the end of the street and set up. Feeling positive as the clouds definitely seemed to be clearing fast now..... NOTE to self,  mark 1 eye ball,  clear outside and the bbc app all need consideration!

The location worked well,  not too far to carry the gear and my plans/ storage and transport set up seemed to work.   Azgtix,  eps and a few other bits (the heavy stuff) just fits (just!) in a small flight/ cabin carry on sized rucksack.  The st120, diagonal, finder and a couple of bits and bobs fit in a large Stanley tool box and the tripod velcro straps neatly to the top.  The Toolbox and tripod aren't light but it's not bad for the 5 ish minute walk up the street, it's not tyring, I just need to swap hands a couple of times. It felt much easier than the trial walk 10 days before,  confirming on that occasion I had indeed already been coming down with the bug that had me stuck in bed the following day.    NOTE to self, when it's a double scope session with the kids be lazy and drive up the street as close as you can!

NOTE to self,  even if you aren't in the early stages of a bug it's enough of an exercise to get you warm so sling the puffa in the Toolbox with the scope,  you'll melt if you wear it for the walk. 

Once there,  it looked promising,  fairly well away from the street and worst of the urban lights with decent horizons. It's not so good low to the north but that is central London and everything dissappears into the glow anyway. The location should work well for many things and I've sussed out crystal palace park to try for occasions when i may want to try something lower on the horizon.  This is promising, my plan seems to be working. 

The clouds were now clearing  so I go about my routine to set up... definitely getting smother.  Set tripod with one leg north according to phone compass, level it,  mount extension,  mount,  st120, diagonal and ep, set the ota as far back in mount as possible to be closest to balance and set to home position of pointing north and roughly level just by eye.   switch on the gtix and connect. For speed I decided not to bother with my additional trays I've made to hang under the tripod... let's be more ordered and keep eps and dust caps back in their bags while not in use.  Being in a dark park and on long grass I need to be disciplined or I'll surely lose something.... my rock climbing disciplined state of mind kicks in and I'm methodical.  NOTE to self this worked, but one additional tray as somewhere to put your phone would be worth the minute or 2 to mount it. 

Check watch as the tube slews to Arcturus, the first of 3 stars i'd entered to do a 3 star alignment.  25 minutes since I left the house.  OK, not bad.  I doubt I could do it much quicker.  The ota stops not far off arcturus, I adjust with the red dot, peer into the 30mm ep, focus, there it is. Centre it roughly in the 30mm and pick the phone up to initiate slewing to the second star. D'OH! I'd turned it off to put it in my pocket for a moment and I guess it was no surprise then that it had lost WiFi and forgotten the 3 star alignment id asked for. OK.....undo the clutches,  slew manually to home (north and level again) one star alignment on arcturus this time.... boom. DONE. 

NOTE to self,  keep your phone on,  put it on the tray when putting it down.

Finally on to some observation.  I'd checked Stellaryium and sky tonight and had a few ideas of things to look for but no hard 'must do list'  mainly as I'd previously been frustrated when things didn't go to plan, but also it still very much feels like I'm learning my capabilities so it's a bit of try different things.  I wanted to A. Just view a few different stars and constellations getting confidence in the mount and my finding ability and growing some more understanding of which way around things appear in the eye piece and how big... these do not come natural to me yet and I feel it would help me greatly to just get to know what to expect to see. B. Try to split a double star or two. This would feel like an achievement and a confidence boost in my ability.  C take a look at the moon,  an easy bit of fun but also coming back to my point A it would help with learning what to elect expect to see.  I wanted to try and find the Hesidus (sp?) Crater that I'd read about having an interesting light Ray at certain times each month... locating this would provide purpose to my travels across the lunar surface and be quite a test I thought. 

How did I do?

A. I jumped around four or five of the brighter and easy to locate stars. No star hopping to harder stuff was needed... I'm working up to that.   The az gtix worked well and the target star was always in the fov of a 17.5mm or bigger ep, easily centred and then tracked well. By the end I felt more confident I was getting to grips with matching the view in the ep with my expectations but I've more practice needed.  This I proved when viewing  Algieba at the end of three session and watching through the ep as I slewed to regulus and seeing the scope move several stars further then I thought it would.   NOTE to self,  keep practicing.  Maybe try star hopping around a constellation next time?

B.  Woo who! I split Castor. Clear as two separate stars in the 6.5mm Morpheus so 92x mag. That boosted my confidence as I thought it would!  Buoyed I then tried capella.   No. With the same ep it was one point of light.   I thought of reaching for another ep to up the mag but  checking my watch and noticing the dew forming on the ground and the chill starting to be more apparent, plus already having several eps in the tray and wanting not to lose track of something in the gloom, i decided to take my singular success and move on to C.

C.  Slew the ep and swap back to 17.5mm Morpheus.  Cricket that's bright!  Where's the primary lens cover /aperture reducer... fit that.   OK that's better,  I can view now.   Took a while to shift the focus... its also still not coming natural to know which way to go as I've swapped eps or targets but I'm getting pretty quick at deducing if I'm shifting focus the right way or just getting further away now at least.   The skywatcher electric focuser is helpful if a bit anaemic and slow.  OK focused. Ooh that does fill the fov.. let's experiment quickly...9, 14, 17.5mm Morpheii and a 30mm stellalyra tested.. the moon is quite big isn't it!? OK back down to the 9 then 6.5mm then try the much lorded svbony 3-8 zoom. Ooo I can see some good detail here!  I settled at about 5mm ish as it seemed the best viewing and was tempted to just go on a journey around the edge of the moon where the craters and contrast looked stunning!  But no.   Stick to the plan and try and learn... it'll do you good.  I consult the quick map lunar image on my phone..err... OK thats the spot I want...zoom out.. traverse.. zoom in... yep that looks like it,  success I think!

With my short task list complete I check my watch,  10 past midnight.. OK can't stay much longer..  need to pack away and can't rush that or I'll lose something...and oo the dew is descending now.   OK let's pack away some of the eps, have a play with the phone mount and try for a shot of the moon then go.  A few minutes later I'd packed 2 or 3 eps away and things felt ordered again so I grabbed the cheap phone mount and tried for a low mag shot of the moon with the 17.5mm Morpheus.   Hmm.. this needs practice. I reckon the cheap mount will do it,  I had glimpses of a great view on the phone screen,  but didn't manage to get things centred where I wanted so after 5 our more minutes playing I put the mount away.  Watch check...0017.  One last thing let's see if the mount is still fine at finding another target after the half hour I've been on the moon. So with a low power ep, the 30mm iirc, I slewed it over to Algieba again and was happy to find it in the fov.

Fingers now feeling a bit chilled and as bbc app had predicted the clouds were beginning to gather again, so I called it.   Got my bits packed away in 15 minutes or so which felt smooth and an improvement....my organisation of bits into the Toolbox and flight rucksack meant each bit had a fairly logical place, and my reasonably disciplined approach throughout the session meant finding dustcaps, bags and homes for everything didn't take too long. I was confident I had everything but a quick sweep of the ground with my red light torch (glad I'd got that in my kit) reassured me.   I donned the rucksack,  picked up the Toolbox with scope and tripod and walked home,  setting the rucksack inside the house and the ota inside the garage I checked my watch as I hung up my coat.   0040.  2.5 hours door to door...a decent amount achieved. 

Overall a positive session.  It seems my kit organisation and location worked well.   It helped to be on my own and just managing one ota....glad i left the mak127 at home.   My 'session plan ' also worked, I learnt a fair bit and feel more confident,  but lots still to do before I can call myself an amateur astronomer!  

As I review this I am remembering other things to try.... I've some cheap Wratten filters ... try those out on the moon next time I think for a start.   Try some star hopping around a constellation.  Try for a dso of some kind.

 

[bosun21]

Just a little bit of advice. When you are finished observing on a night with dew about and back home it's good to let your gear dry out properly. Leave the caps off your eyepieces and telescope to allow the air to circulate and dry the surfaces. I point my telescope downwards and leave it for several hours, often overnight. This will prevent any damage to the coatings on your optics. Fungus loves dark damp conditions. You seem to be getting a routine working for you.

[LondonNeil]

Thanks.  I'd wondered if I should do that sort of thing.  It was part of my reasoning behind putting the eps and mount in the rucksack,  to make it easy to bring those inside the house while the ota can stay in the more ambient garage.  I'll shall think about bringing it all inside overnight to dry out  and opening bags and caps. Thanks

[josefk]

Good tip on airing everything out @bosun21 - i'm exceptionally fussy about that myself. Keeping EPs under cover while using them in a session but they're not the one in the scope at that moment is also important (IMHO) to prevent them getting too damp in the first place.

Sounds like a good run out @LondonNeil - like you one of my regualr observing spots is a few hundred meters from my home and i walk up to it - my tip - keep it simple. Simple gear (not everything out all at once and not everything at every session) and everything organised (sounds like you have already cracked that with the tool box and ruck sack).

If your gear is a bit unwieldy/heavy you could resort to a small sack truck available in DIY super stores. I personally wouldn't jolt my scope around on one but you could bungee your tripod, a stool, and maybe a boxed or bagged mount to one and take the weight out of your hands. 🙂

 

[LondonNeil]

Thanks.  Yes I was quite pleased the organisation of the kit worked well but was also thinking of ways to improve it.   The easiest being leave behind any eps I know I won't use,  I'll do that next time.  I'm also thinking of ways to either add a shoulder strap to the tool box,  or to the tripod. That may help or may not.... i'll need to explore.

Covering EPs.... Thanks,  I'll think on that.   I guess replacing the dust cap is easy but I want to move away from having numerous dust caps floating about as I'm sure that will see them lost....a bit of discipline and it skittle be OK but I'll think about another solution too.

[LondonNeil]

12 hours ago, josefk said:

Good tip on airing everything out @bosun21 - i'm exceptionally fussy about that myself. Keeping EPs under cover while using them in a session but they're not the one in the scope at that moment is also important (IMHO) to prevent them getting too damp in the first place.

Sounds like a good run out @LondonNeil - like you one of my regualr observing spots is a few hundred meters from my home and i walk up to it - my tip - keep it simple. Simple gear (not everything out all at once and not everything at every session) and everything organised (sounds like you have already cracked that with the tool box and ruck sack).

If your gear is a bit unwieldy/heavy you could resort to a small sack truck available in DIY super stores. I personally wouldn't jolt my scope around on one but you could bungee your tripod, a stool, and maybe a boxed or bagged mount to one and take the weight out of your hands. 🙂

 

I just thought,  not a sack truck but one of those 4 wheeled garden trolleys/carts.  I've been thinking of getting one for trips to the beach anyway.... 😀

[PeterStudz]

Nice report @LondonNeil. I think that the is the right place to post it too.

I observe mostly from my back garden, which logistically is a lot easier! I always use and replace dust caps as I go along. After a while it becomes second nature and you don’t notice doing it. Although it helps if all the eyepieces use the same type/size dust cap. Often they don’t. And for me dropping one is terminal - the dog loves eating them! - although it’s been a few years since I actually dropped a dust cap.

I usually keep eyepieces in a big long pocket on my hoodie. Helps keep them at the right temperature. It’s not so much dew, but if too cold then just the heat from your eye/face can cause them to mist-up - really annoying. I do have a small eyepiece tray, but only use it for temporary storage,

The thing is to get a system that works for you. Of course this takes practice and trial/error. 

 

[LondonNeil]

I made this little cart at the weekend from an old Pram I had hung on to and various left over materials from jobs, most of which have been cluttering the garage for over a decade.   Only cost was £2.50 for the 2 x 40mm 90⁰ waste pipe elbows to complete the handle. 

 

I added a cross strut from a piece of aluminium square section tube so that Bale arm crates fit it perfectly...i use a couple of these to store stuff for the beach so beach trips will be super easy now. 

The telescope in its box fits along the cary chassis OK to and a cheap ratchet strap or a bungee will secure it well. 

 

Looks like it may be cloud free and get 'first light' tonight!