First (Cloudy)Light 8" LX90

[Johnboy2011]

Rushed home last night with my first ever scope, a second hand 8" LX90 GPS! Not expecting anything weather wise (Poole) I was amazed to see a few gaps in the clouds. I bravely took the scope straight out without tea and got to work setting up.

This is when I started making beginner mistakes! Assembling everything was fine - alignment impossible! Each time I was asked to centre on brightest star there was rarely a star there at all. I realised that with the cloud rolling in and out, light pollution and trees and buildings I would be up against it, but even when scrolling to other stars I just could'nt align. After a couple of hours and the cloud finally winning I called it a day with just a couple of glimpses of the moon in the bag.

Things I didn't do were: Cool down the optics (does this help with dew prevention?). Put on the dew sheild until I had a problem, a big problem, with dew! Align the guide scope properly! After getting back in and checking it seems I should of searched harder for the brightest star which may not be in the FOV, I guess it would have helped if I'd aligned the guide scope.

I think I just need to cool my jets a bit next time! I'm going to get the scope cool, set up the guide scope properly and try again when hopefully I've got more than a couple of minutes between clouds to find the alignment stars! I'm not sure how I'm going to get on with the light pollution in my back garden, only one way to find out I suppose.

Any hints or tips are very welcome, I'll let you know how I get on with phase 2 when the weather clears!

[John]

Allowing the scope to cool greatly enhances the views - straight out of the house the scope will be full of warm air currents and the views can be quite awful. An 8" SCT needs around an hour to cool. You will need some form of dew prevention as well if you don't already have it - either a dew shield or a heated dew strap - preferrably both.

[Johnboy2011]

Forgot to mention, as I had just brought it back in the car I'm guessing I'll need to sort out collimation as well, I might need to pluck up a bit of courage for that!