At 12:26 PM 6/3/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Have any of you been able to locate any bright stars in your LX's in
>daylight? I have seen what appeared to be a bright star with my 10" in
>the past on several occasions.
>
>Andy

Each year I take mine to several folk festivals that I attend as a
musician. I have used it in the daytime on many occasions. I think mag 4
is about the best I have done if memory serves. Mag 0 is very easy.

The trick, of course, is to be very well aligned. Even a mag 0 star can be
tricky to find initially if it isn't where you expect it. It's funny....
once you spot it you can't figure out how you missed it!

Venus and Jupiter (and Sirius) are good signposts, as they are pretty easy
in the finder.

What I do is get the tripod exactly level and then do a no star alignment.
Using that initial alignment to make things easier, I do a one star
alignment on something like Venus or Sirius. If the tripod and tube were
level, the ALT should be pretty close.... slew a bit in AZ and you shuold
find the object. Following that, I am usually close enough to pull off a
two star alignment, since the scope will attempt to find the second star
for you. If you are level, it should be pretty close to where the scope
thinks it is. Just pick a really bright one as the second star. And of
course, after a two star alignment, it is just as accurate as it is at
night.

Note that the one star alignment can be done on the sun if you have a PC
hooked up and send the sun's coordinates via RS232. It won't be as
accurate as it would on a star because it is hard to judge the center of
the sun, though.

Have fun and amaze your collegues!


Paul Goelz
Rochester Hills, MI
pgoelz at eaglequest dot com

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