Siguy
25-April-2008, 02:45 PM
Last night I decided to have a nice long observing session. It was clear, so I took out my stuff, fine tuned the polar alignment, and got everything ready. I invited the neighbors over to "look at Saturn".
First of all, it took me a while to find Saturn. Then I realized that my finderscope was totally misaligned, so I used my Telrad. I found it, but the bad seeing made it very mushy. You could see the rings (of course) and briefly glimpse the Cassini and cloud belts, so it wasn't too bad.
Then I tried to start up Autostar. I entered the date and time, and then tried to align. It tried "slewing" to Arcturus. But the RA drive did not kick in, and the dec. drive was just spinning around, tangling the cord. So I quickly shut off the power and tried again. This time I stopped it from slewing to Arcturus, so it slewed to Capella instead. The dec. drive stopped, but then I guess the computer was a slow thinker because it took about five minutes for the RA drive to kick in, and then it said "motor failure." I tried pressing buttons and all that happened was that it went "testing motors" and then went back to "motor failure."
By this time the neighbors were over. I shut of the computer and manually slewed to Saturn for them. Then I realized that it was 8:30, almost time to shoot the -8 mag. Iridium 81 flare that I happened to notice when checking Heavens above. I ran upstairs and grabbed my camera and tripod. Then I started taking practice exposures of where the flare was. It was right between Canes Venatici and the Coma Cluster, making a nice frame in a 50mm lens, according to Stellarium and Heavens Above. But it wasn't properly dark yet so I had to guess where they were.
My guess was about 10 degrees too far to the right, unfortunately. I told my friend to watch the sky where the camera was pointing. Then all of a sudden, right on time, he pointed out a very bright flare. I franticly repositioned my camera as the next, even brighter flare happened. But I only caught the tail end of it, and bumped the camera in the process. Well, at least it was cool to look at. But then when quickly going over my "test" images, I noticed the Coma Cluster in one of them to the lower left, and if I had only noticed that before I could have re-framed the shot. I told my friend (the rest of the neighbors had already left by now) to look at Saturn while I vent. It was a lot like the night before; when photographing a thunderstorm I let go of the shutter a split second before a huge cloud-to-ground textbook arc would have went all the way through the frame. And also how I repositioned the camera to get more sky after a lighting bolt got cut off. I didn't get any good shots that night, either.
Well, now it was almost dark so I might as well observe. Once again failing to start up Autostar properly, I had to resort to manual pointing. So I tried to find M81 and M82 for my friend, but it is tough when your Telrad is in a very awkward position. So instead I found M51 for the first time. I saw a lot of detail, even hints of structure, which was great, but it was really no showcase object compared to M81 and M82.
I continued to try a few times at getting Autostar to work, but with no avail.
Then I noticed that my pocket was feeling very warm. Burning hot, in fact. I then realized my laser pointer was in there. I set it aside, hoping that it wouldn't explode or leak battery acid.
There was a possibility it was still business hours in California, so I tried calling Meade, but they weren't open, so I went back to the scope. Basically the only things I recall looking at were stars, Saturn, the Beehive, and the Whirlpool. Most of the time I was just joking with my friend about how everything was going wrong, and how telescopes with minds of there own probably weren't a good idea.
When he left, I tried to skip alignment and just turn Sidereal on so I could shoot M51, but I wasn't even able to do that.
My laser pointer did not explode, but it killed a couple of fresh AAA batteries.
The worst part is that after Saturday, it will be nothing but overcast and rain for at least a week. :sad:
First of all, it took me a while to find Saturn. Then I realized that my finderscope was totally misaligned, so I used my Telrad. I found it, but the bad seeing made it very mushy. You could see the rings (of course) and briefly glimpse the Cassini and cloud belts, so it wasn't too bad.
Then I tried to start up Autostar. I entered the date and time, and then tried to align. It tried "slewing" to Arcturus. But the RA drive did not kick in, and the dec. drive was just spinning around, tangling the cord. So I quickly shut off the power and tried again. This time I stopped it from slewing to Arcturus, so it slewed to Capella instead. The dec. drive stopped, but then I guess the computer was a slow thinker because it took about five minutes for the RA drive to kick in, and then it said "motor failure." I tried pressing buttons and all that happened was that it went "testing motors" and then went back to "motor failure."
By this time the neighbors were over. I shut of the computer and manually slewed to Saturn for them. Then I realized that it was 8:30, almost time to shoot the -8 mag. Iridium 81 flare that I happened to notice when checking Heavens above. I ran upstairs and grabbed my camera and tripod. Then I started taking practice exposures of where the flare was. It was right between Canes Venatici and the Coma Cluster, making a nice frame in a 50mm lens, according to Stellarium and Heavens Above. But it wasn't properly dark yet so I had to guess where they were.
My guess was about 10 degrees too far to the right, unfortunately. I told my friend to watch the sky where the camera was pointing. Then all of a sudden, right on time, he pointed out a very bright flare. I franticly repositioned my camera as the next, even brighter flare happened. But I only caught the tail end of it, and bumped the camera in the process. Well, at least it was cool to look at. But then when quickly going over my "test" images, I noticed the Coma Cluster in one of them to the lower left, and if I had only noticed that before I could have re-framed the shot. I told my friend (the rest of the neighbors had already left by now) to look at Saturn while I vent. It was a lot like the night before; when photographing a thunderstorm I let go of the shutter a split second before a huge cloud-to-ground textbook arc would have went all the way through the frame. And also how I repositioned the camera to get more sky after a lighting bolt got cut off. I didn't get any good shots that night, either.
Well, now it was almost dark so I might as well observe. Once again failing to start up Autostar properly, I had to resort to manual pointing. So I tried to find M81 and M82 for my friend, but it is tough when your Telrad is in a very awkward position. So instead I found M51 for the first time. I saw a lot of detail, even hints of structure, which was great, but it was really no showcase object compared to M81 and M82.
I continued to try a few times at getting Autostar to work, but with no avail.
Then I noticed that my pocket was feeling very warm. Burning hot, in fact. I then realized my laser pointer was in there. I set it aside, hoping that it wouldn't explode or leak battery acid.
There was a possibility it was still business hours in California, so I tried calling Meade, but they weren't open, so I went back to the scope. Basically the only things I recall looking at were stars, Saturn, the Beehive, and the Whirlpool. Most of the time I was just joking with my friend about how everything was going wrong, and how telescopes with minds of there own probably weren't a good idea.
When he left, I tried to skip alignment and just turn Sidereal on so I could shoot M51, but I wasn't even able to do that.
My laser pointer did not explode, but it killed a couple of fresh AAA batteries.
The worst part is that after Saturday, it will be nothing but overcast and rain for at least a week. :sad: