Hi Flag,

i went through the very same story, some time ago. my very first target was
M51 and i did not see it, then M81 aqnd i did not see it, then jupiter and i
DID see it!
Since then, i have been enjoying my scope a lot, i made several good
piggyback photo of several nebulas, i'm working on the Sun for a project
(with safety and baader filters!) but still i can't see M51... it appears
that my location, near to a major city, is limiting the possibility to
visually see faint objects. About planets, bigger power makes the image
fuzzy due to the same reason as before: turbolence and pollution.
About the focuser, i have the JMI and it works as promised. at least, the
image does not jump around when focusing. Being the star at virtually
infinite distance, you should focus only once and that BEFORE synchronizing
on the two stars, or the sync will go ashtray (if the image moves when
focusing, where the scope is pointing now? to the wrong position!) but since
the focus HAS to be set occasionally, due to temperature changes, it is
better to have a focuser that don't shift.

finally: with clouds rolling, the athmosphere will be as bad as mud to see
through...

regards
paolo


-----Original Message-----
RebelPPC
Sent: Monday, April 16, 2001 5:56 AM
Subject: [M]: New 8" f/10 LX-200 Looses Virginity


Well, it started clearing around 8:00 pm so I decided to give a try to my
first outing with the new scope. Got everything out side, setup, pointing
dead south and zero Dec, leveled and plugged in within a half hour. This
left around 45 minutes until the sky would reveal enough stars to get
started so no problem since the scope needed some time to cool down from
being inside. Had a difference of only 10 degrees from inside temp to
outside temp so I assumed this would not be that big a difference to require
a longer time to settle in.

Still had some clouds blowing by when it was time to get started so it would
be a viewing session of trying to dodge the clouds. Powered up and started
my 2-star alignment. I hand control slewed to my first star which was #81
Pollux in Gemini, centered it and stored it. Next I did a GOTO to my 2nd
alignment star which was #147 Arcturus in Bootes. After the GOTO, I found
that the scope had come very close to getting it already centered. I did a
little tweaking to center it and stored it.

BTW, the finder scope that was aligned on a TV transmission tower 5 miles
away and then taken off for storage was right on the money when putting it
back on and aligning to my first star.

I then did a GOTO on M51, the Whirlpool Nebula located somewhat off the last
star in the handle of the Big Dipper. I did this one so I would have a
visual idea where it was in case the scope missed it and I had to hunt
around a bit. Well, I never found it or if I did I never saw it. I was
doing all this with my 26mm Plossl so decided to try the 16mm and then the
9.7 Plossls but to no avail. Just couldn't find it or see it so I went to
the second GOTO on my list which was M81-82 but had the same results. Last
on the list was M97, the Owl Nebula which is a lot lower in luminance and as
already expected, was never seen or found. No problem because I was at
least out there getting use to doing this in the dark.

More dark clouds moving in so I decided it might be time to tear down and
run for it but not before checking out this big bright star on the western
horizon in Taurus. To my surprise, there was Jupiter big as a dime in my
eyepiece. Got it focused real nice in the 26mm so decided to check it out
in the 16mm and then the 9.7mm but as it got bigger the worse it looked as
far as clarity. With the 16mm you could still see a little detail but a
little fuzzy and with the 9.7 all detail was lost and very fuzzy. I went
back to my 26mm and enjoyed the view for as long as I dared with the clouds
rolling in.

Tore down and got everything back inside. 45 minutes later it rained.

I did come to one conclusion... My next purchase will be a motorized
focusing unit of some sort or another. Which one will depend on what works
best with the addition of CCD in the future. That will be a topic of
discussion from me in a short while when I am ready to make that move. I
found the LX-200 focus mechanism very "course" in its travel not to mention
touching the scope made things go bonkers.

All in all, I spent two viewing hours out my first time and even though I
could not find or could not see the Mxx's I had on my list, Jupiter was a
lovely surprise and made the short evening worth every bit of the work it
took to set up and tear down in such a short time.

Regards
FLag
8" f/10 LX-200 #845198
36:10:32.754 N
82:43:31.098 W

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