21st January 2021

[philjay]

A good 3 hours of clear sky tonight before the clouds rolled in. I have been having a few alignment problems on the HEQ5 pro this year so I wanted to sort this out as well as image the moon and do a bit of visual.

 

I set up the HEQ5 pro with the updated vintage Towa 339 80mm F15 refractor. I made sure balance was spot on and power to the mount was from my old observatory regulated power supply, just in case low volts from the battery pack were the problem. Polar alignment was bob on also.

 

First try at 3 star alignment resulted in the now familiar  "Alignment Poor" message, this was obvious from the second alignment star as it was way off requiring too much adjustment. I powered down and did a bit of head scratching.

 

So clutching at straws I changed the site co ordinates to the new abode. In all the years I have used this mount I have just put in the old abode co ordinates and that has been fine. The mount has always mapped the sky even from Kelling using my home co ordinates. It has always been accurate.

 

So second attempt, first align star way off, which is isn't too odd. Second align star in the FOV of the 22mm eyepiece, a slight tweak to centre it and  then the third align star was bang on. Yey! success but I have no idea why. The only thing I could think of was my input co ordinates had got corrupted at some point????? Strange.

 

Happy that all was well on the mount and scope I slapped the Olympus OM D EM1 on it and took a load of subs of the moon. The scope was nice and cool now but the wind was buffeting the scope a little from time to time.  

 

I then put the 22mm Vixen in and had a session with just the 22mm eyepiece in the Towa giving 54x.

 

I started on the prominent Messiers as the moonlight washing out the fainter stuff.

 

Auriga Clusters M36, 37 and 38 all nicely picked out in the scope. Then on to nearby M35 which was a good view but no chance of the fainter NGC cluster nearby with the moonlight.

 

Whilst in Gemini I nipped over to the Eskimo, nice blue colour, obviously not a star and at this mag it plays tricks on my eye by popping in and out of view if looked at directly.

 

NGC 457, Owl Cluster was lovely at this magnification, it's eyes always appear to be looking back at me through space.

 

M31 was a bit of a wash out but M32 could be seen, no M110 though. Whilst in the area I spotted M15, a fuzzy blob at this mag, no real star definition.

 

M42, lovely, the Trapezium was nicely framed by the bright part of the nebula and the wings were easily visible either side.

 

Mars and Uranus were very close to each other. Because they are small I didn't even bother to up the mag on either because atmospherics wouldn't have helped the Mars view and all you get with Uranus is a slightly larger disc. However Uranus showed nice colour and a definite small disc. I noticed both planets were in the finder field of view.

 

I then did a few doubles, Almaak is always a favourite of mine once Albireo has moved on, the colours of the two main companions are worth a look.

Then as the clouds started to encroach I quickly shot through the doubles that were in view on the handset database.

 

That scratched the itch for awhile and I was well pleased to have got the HEQ5 pro back to it's usual accuarcey on goto.

 

[+Ibbo]

Glad you sorted the alignent out.

[BAZ]

You had a good night once the gremlins were banished. A nice write up too, thanks Phil.

[philjay]

What puzzles me is my new location is only 12 miles away from my old location so normally this wouldnt make a blind bit of difference, which makes me think I,ve accidentally corrupted the original co ordinates somehow.

Edited January 23, 2021 by philjay

[+Ibbo]

2 minutes ago, philjay said:

What puzzles me is my new location is only 12 miles away from my old location so normally this wouldnt make a blind bit of difference, which makes me think I,ve accidentally corrupted the original co ordinates somehow.

It was aliens.

[+Bino-viewer]

Good to hear you've sorted it out. Nice report.

These mounts can have a mind of their own.......

[Nightspore]

On 23/01/2021 at 15:52, philjay said:

 

I then did a few doubles, Almaak is always a favourite of mine once Albireo has moved on, the colours of the two main companions are worth a look.

Then as the clouds started to encroach I quickly shot through the doubles that were in view on the handset database.

 

 

 

 

Don't forget the Winter Albireo (145 G Canis Majoris).

 

https://rogerivester.com/2017/02/08/winter-albireo-h-3945-double-star-in-canis-major-february-observers-challenge-object/

 

I got out on the 21st as well.

 

 

With my ST80 and AZ5. I wasn't sure about the weather and decided to fit everything into these bags, which I can carry in one journey.

 

 

I had a good two hours. I haven't used the ST80 for years. Naturally I started with the Moon. Rupes Recta was very dramatic on the terminator, more chiaroscuro than I expected. The Lumicon #8/UCF1 stack gave a very natural view although the ST80 doesn't really suffer from a great deal of CA. The #8 did leave a yellow hint in the occasional crater lip or wall but the UCF also helped with the glare as the Moon was quite bright. I tend to prefer this stack than the Baader FK/Neodymium stack as it gives a slightly more natural image. I wasn't sure how much time I'd have so I left the modified William Optics Amici in for a while and saw Mars and Uranus at 160x. There were no problems with the diffraction spike. I'd replaced the helical focuser with a standard GSO drawtube. It did actually briefly rain on me, although it was very light. I could see Martian surface features, just about with the 2.5mm TMB 'Mavis Laven' clone and a Celestron Mars Filter.

 

 

The phase was apparent. I think I could even see the southern polar cap, it might have been high altitude clouds though. There were what looked like high altitude clouds in the north. Uranus did resolve into a tiny disc. Eventually as the clouds cleared more I swapped the Amici for the 2" Synta dielectric and the 31mm Baader Hyperion Aspheric. Even with the bright Moon I got some fantastic views at 12.9x. Highlights were the Alpha Persei (Moving Group) Cluster, Double Cluster, Owl Cluster, M103 and the Pleiades. As Orion got higher I viewed the Serpent Cluster and the Orion Nebula. I went back to Mars and Uranus with the dielectric, there was a bit of scatter with Mars, although that's normal for dielectrics. Eventually I ended with the 7mm TMB 'Mavis' (first light) for 57x and got a great view of the Double Cluster and M42.

 

 

I forgot what great fun the ST80's were.

Edited January 30, 2021 by Nightspore