Sunday, September 25, 2011

Location:    TDS

Weather:    Cool (50s); clear, got wet at the end (wet the F80 objective)

People:      None.

Goals going in:

Test out the new used 17.5" dob: Movement, balance w/ F80 on it, pointing/finding, how deep? Comet Garradd, M101 Supernova

Summary

Got there after dark.  Shock and awe at the Summer Milky Way.  Wow!  Scope did well.  Need a little more back weight.  Finding/Pointing was hard.  Setup/breakdown was reasonably easy. 

Highlights:

1st (Dark) Light for the 17.5" (Coach); very bright distinct Swan, Pinwheel, Andromeda Dust Lane.

First: the sky itself.  I arrived late, fully dark.  Wow.  Summer Milky Way.  De-laminates (de-Lames) me for going to bed after putting Dash down during the blackout rather than break out a scope.  The sky from home that night was clearly the darkest I've ever seen it from home, but the waxing gibbous Moon was washing out things (no Milky Way was visible from home). The TDS sky was amazing.

Collimation was off a bit in the dissembly and drive.  It collimated quickly, but clearly, I'm going to have to bring a collimator every time.

Was pushing the scope in the kettle's steam.  The Swan Nebula jumped out, really bright.  Slewed about to the Eagle, Lagoon and Trifid.  My impression was that they were not the most distinct I had seen of them.  A shroud and mirror recoat will probably bring them out some more.  Hercules Cluster was good but not the best I'd seen (N11 was a good EP for it).  Andromeda Galaxy was good (but it looks the same regardless of what equipment you use on it (shape-wise rather than extents-wise (it was longer))).  The dust lane was definitely long and relatively sharp.  M110 looked big.

I basically couldn't find anything new at this point, so I broke out the maps.  Found the Pinwheel (M33), which is no more than the 3rd time I've found it (perhaps the best was in the incredible skies of Mammoth Mountain, where it was easily visible my little 4-inch achro). 

Double Cluster was visible naked eye, but not all that impressive in the scope (I remember being startled sweeping across it in the XT12).

Misses:

The RDF-F80-main finder combination was off a bit; I had a hard time locating things, well, specifically, I had a hard time locating dim objects, and identifying things I stumbled upon (such as the miscellaneous globs). Couldn't find M101 (it was low, but up).  I spent about 45 minutes looking for Comet Garradd.  I only had a rough idea where it was (between Alberio and Hercules).  I think I found it in the 15x70s, but couldn't find it in the finder or the scope.  I think a Telrad should improve things.

Balance was a bit nose-heavy, had to hold it at low altitudes. 

Fine for almost the whole night, but got a bit spooked during take down.

Good night: happy with the scope.

(Note from the future: the mirror was ground to a sphere, it was never parabolized until Terry Ostahowski finished it to a .96 strehl years later.)