The rain gods were appeased yesterday, so it cleared last night here in the
Ohio Valley so I was able to take my 10" f6.3 LX200 out for the first time.
Since the clouds parted late, I just brought it out to my back deck. I have
a shopping mall to the west and north (back of the house faces west) so my
limiting magnitude around 3.0.

Started it up, did the two star alignment (took all of about 60seconds -
Regulus first, then Alkaid). Then I said, find the moon (okay, easy target).
Spin, whir, chug - there was the moon. Okay, I was happy that the
electronics worked. Then I went on to M44. It put it beautifully in the
field of view. I'm excited now. All my astronomical training started coming
back, fond rememberences of the two-body problem.

I really wanted to look for some galaxies, but realizing that they'd be hard
to find in my light polluted home I went to the high-precision mode. Then
asked for M51. Spin, whir, chug it asked me to center a star, which I did,
then it spun slightly again and put M51 dead center. Or claimed to, at any
rate. I saw just the vaguest fuzzy blur. I then realized a new equation that
I would have to deal with: Moon + light pollution + galaxies =
fuggehedaboutit.

Not dismayed, I went to globulars, and was quite pleased (seriously) with
the views of M3 and M53. I wa able to resolve near to the core in each and
was a pretty happy camper. Dew started to show up (I ordered a dew shield,
but it has yet to arrive), so I packed it in for the night.

I was a bit cute in this write-up, but this is my first goto experience, and
I will say that I would never have found many of the things I saw without
goto, and with just a quick alignment (and high-precision), it put these
things right in the middle of the field of an 18mm eyepiece. I even cranked
it up with a barlow on the globs (effective 9mm), and the results were the
same - right in the middle, no need to monkey with any controls.

For people who, like me, lurked here for quite a while before buying, I
offer this as a testament to a pretty well built device.

Mike

View index by [date] [author] [subject]
Previous message: [M]: Re: Re: Bobs Nobs, Ettore Zuccarino
Next message: [M]: Pocket PC's and CCD's, Michael De Santis
Next message in thread: [M]: RE: First Light, Mark de Regt