Wymeswold 9th Feb 2018

[philjay]

ED80, HEQ5. Clear but windy.

 

The first chance I have had to take out the HEQ5 and put it through its paces after the belt mod I did late last year.

3 star alignment was successful  first time which was good news and the mount is so quiet, no more grinding of gears, excellent.

 

The following objects were chosen to stretch the mounts legs so to speak as well as re acquaint me with some old favourites, I have not been at the back of a scope for 3 months for various reasons.

·         M42 and trapezium, no chance of E&F stars with the unsteady seeing

·         M35 and 2158

·         M31,32,110

·         M45,36,37,38,44,41,39,47,34,46,81,82,67

·         NGC2264 Christmas Tree cluster

·         NGC2392 Eskimo

·         NGC7662 Blue Snowball

·         Almach

·         Double Cluster

·         SHJ49 triple system in Orion

·         Lambda Orionis

·         Theta Orionis

·         NGC457

After 3 hours I was a bit cold and flagging as I had an hours drive back so packed away but this was a good enjoyable session.

It was nice to get some of the southern horizon  Messiers, 41, 46, 47 these I havent been able to see for decades from my garden due to neighbours trees growing and blocking my views. The southern horizon aspect at WW is ideal

[BAZ]

That's a good bag of objects there Phil. Glad the mount works well for you.

[Doc]

Some great targets there Phil. Glad your mod worked out there's nothing worse then the sound of a coffee grinder late at night. I thought the seeing was pretty good last night so it's strange that considering the small distances involved that Wymeswold was unsteady and Chilwell was steady.

[philjay]

It was variable Mick. The trap was all over the place at one point, then later it steadied a bit but I still couldnt do the E&F components. I went back a bit later and it was swirling again. Strange because Orion was way high and no trees around to disturb, just local transient conditions. The club house and fence were very handy for keeping the north westerly wind off me and the scope however.