Session with Terry at my place

[Brantuk]

Terry (wobby) came round tonight with his newly acquired s/h Celestron 114mm scope on EQ2. Showed him how to balance it, set altitude, and do a rough polar align for observing using the plough pointers and pole star. Then out on the drive for some observing.

Turns out the battery for the finder was missing and the spreader was absent - so a little wobbly and difficult to point - made up for it using the laser pointer. There was a lot of light pollution from surrounding street lights and a half moon.

Looked at the moon first which was nice and sharp - especially in his Vixen NPL 15mm and drifted up and down the terminator and had a good look inside some craters. All very crisp and contrasty and could see a hill peak inside one of them.

Then wondered over to Mars and had no trouble tracking in RA. Saw the white polar cap and the reddy brown central area - looked a little blue round the other cap - dunno what that is. Then we went to saturn and tracked that the rest of the night - he was thrilled to see that and very happy with the collimation. The cassini division stood out very well and could even see a bit of faint banding on the surface.

After a cuppa to warm up we had a peer at the beehive in binocs but cloud obscured Terrys view and it was very faint for me too. Also looked at the double in the handle of the plough. I got the Meg72 out and the 13mm Ethos, small but very clear view of Saturn so I barlowed it to 6.5mm with the Powermate for a slightly bigger view. Still not satisfied I put the 3.7mm SX in for 170x mag and Cassini jumped out despite the low elevation and poor atmospherics.

Didn't bother trying for dso's cos of the moon but the AZ4 held all the kit very firmly and was a doddle finding stuff with a smooth action and the WO multi reticle variable brighness rdf. So I'm glad the mount works ok.

A final cuppa and a chat in which I answered loads of questions for half an hour and we packed up. All in all a very pleasant and useful session. Terrys scope was smashing for the £50 it cost - couldn't have done better at that price. Just remember the spreader next time and it won't vibrate quite so much.

[+RonC]

Sounds a good session, another newbie on the road!!

[Daz Type-R]

Nice one Kim, good write up.

[catman161]

Good stuff Kim. Sounds like a good session. Nothing but thick grey cloud down here in Devon last night.

[Doc]

You are the man Kim, you would have been a teacher in another life I'm sure.

[Brantuk]

Thanks guys - actually Mick - I was a teacher at college of FE one year way back - taught computing. I also spent 2 years running tutorials and giving regular lectures in microprocessor design at Leicester Poly (when it was a poly lol)

[Doc]

There you go I knew you would make a good teacher and I was right.

[Guest Steve]

I went to Leicester Poly - used to love going up and down the Paternoster in the (now deceased) James Went building! Combined studies, including Computing, but that would have been waaaaay before Kim's time. Wouldn't it?

[Brantuk]

Nope - my technician office/workshop was next to the Paternosters on the first floor and I used them many times daily gadding around the building. I even got stuck in both the top and bottom as a result of student pranks lol. I was there when the building got evacuated due to asbestos in the ceilings - I was the one who raised the alarm cos I was fixing stuff to the ceiling. We ended up in Thames Tower for 6mths.

Does any of that ring bells for you Steve?

[Guest Steve]

Wow - I was there then. The various floors were taped up with polythene at the stairwell. But they (cough) still let (cough) us into some bits of the (cough cough) building.

Let's think, it might have been 86-89 ish for my degree? Or maybe when I did my MSc 3 or 4 years later.

[Brantuk]

My Grad Dip is dated 86 and I left the Poly a year later - so I was there a full 6yrs up to then except one year out at Wiggeston College teaching. I was a technician in the computer labs for the final 3 yrs. If you were in Thames Tower you were deffo one of the students we used to tease lol

[Guest Steve]

I think the Thames Tower jaunt might have been during my Sandwich year. I remember talk of it but never went over there. (I was at UKAEA Harwell measuring the velocity of ultrasound in beer. God's honest truth!)

When I got back I think they were in a state where they had 1/2 the building sealed off. But we could still get to the paternoster! Happy days.

[Guest Steve]

You technician types were like the Morlocks to our Eloi

[BAZ]

measuring the velocity of ultrasound in beer.

Sorry, I have got to shamelessly lift that off you, it sounds fantastic. I shall see if I can propagate harmonic resonance in it this weekend. lol.