Well. . . Couldn't sit here at work all day Friday knowing my new LX90 8" SCT was just sitting there at the store waiting for me, so took off early and headed on over. He went in back and came out a minute later with 3 boxes on a dolly. My heart sped up a couple RPM's just seeing the boxes! headed over to their accessories counter and picked up a 12.4mm Meade 4000 Super Plozzl, a celestron skyglow filter (screws directly into the optical opening), a moon filter and a mylar solar filter. Wanted a dew shield and a larger EP (40mm or bigger), but they had neither. The scope guy wanted to be sure the celestron solar filter fit the scope, so he carefully unpacked it and set it on the counter. Everyone around stopped to take a look at this thing of beauty. I almost felt unworthy! (well, almost. . .).

got everything home and started the unpacking. Before you know it, I'm sitting there staring at this beautiful, midnight blue SCT standing proudly on a sturdy, gleaming mount of brushed aluminum and iron. Man, what a sight!! Initialized the Autostar and added some velcro to the fork mount and the hand controller (makes for a super convenient spot to stick the controller when not in use), took her outside to align the finderscope. Couldn't believe how sensitive the focus was, or the range I had to turn the knob to zero in on a distant tree branch! This is one well crafted piece of art!

As it was a beautiful, clear day, I figured why wait til night and threw on the solar filter for a peek at the Sun. The filter felt a little loose. Not a good thing when viewing the Sun! So, I took a couple pieces of sticky-back felt and stuck them to the rim of the filter. Made it fit much more snugly. Saw a few grouping of sunspots, but nothing too dramatic. One of these years, I'm gonna have to splurge for an H-alpha filter.

So, by now word is out that Jeffrey's got a new scope! A half hour or so before sundown, my buddy shows up and he and I take the scope out to the front yard and set about getting it leveled. Tried doing it w/out any instructions at first, but soon saw the folly in this endevour! Went back inside and got the leveling instructions I had downloaded from the MAPUG earlier, and it was a snap! Before you know it, I could swivel the scope completely around in R.A and the bubble on the level didn't budge a bit from center. Went back in to shoot some pool and wait for dark. An hour or 2 later, we headed back out, pointed the scope to Polaris, tightened down the RA lock and powered 'er up. After setting the date and time, I picked "2 star" alignment and scrolled down to Aldebaran. Hit the GOTO key and we all laughed out loud as the scope "whirred" its way to find the star. Centered it and hit enter, then picked Sirius for the second star. After centering that one, I get the "alignment successful" message and we're set to go! Before I could even ask, the crowd starts calling out for Saturn (by now, my wife and dad have joined me and my buddy). I scroll down to Saturn on the hand controller and hit GOTO, and away she goes! After a little "beep" to indicate it's done, I take a peek. What can I say that hasn't already been said! AMAZING! There she was, just hanging there like something out of a magazine, the rings clearing standing out around the ball of the planet. Stepped back with an ear to ear grin as the others took their turns trying to put words to the incredible site they were seeing. Replaced the 26mm (77x) with the 12.4 (161x). Much narrower FOV, and not much of a difference in the way the planet itself looked (at least it didn't seem much different). Thinking back, I'm sure it was twice the size, but when it's small to begin with, doubling the size doesn't seem to buy you much. Conditions seemed perfect though, and I found myself wishing I had a smaller EP to see how far I could push things! Anyways, after everyone took a peek with the 12.4, it was time for Jupiter. Felt a little wary considering it was only a degree or 2 from the gibbous Moon, but when the scope beeped and I stepped up to the ep, BOOM! There she was, with all 4 moons off to the west in a nice straight line. Could easily make out 2 bands across the planet. Again, stood back with huge grin as the others took a peek and made their exclamations. I thought the 12.4mm might show the moons as actual disks, but they still only appeared as points of light. Is it possible to see them as disks, and if so at what power?

Everyone's next request, of course, was the Moon itself. Screwed the filter on the 12.4 and punched the hand controller. Before you know it, we're "ooh'ing" and "ahh'ing" over the craters and moutain ranges of our nearest astro neighbor.

With both planets and the moon out of the way, my fellow gazers figured that was it. Nay, I say! as I punch in M42. it showed up as a well defined, greyish-blue smear covering almost the entire fov, with 4 stars of the trap. right in the middle. Explained to the folks what they were seeing, but alas, I don't think they could fully grasp, so were not as impressed as with the planets and moon. My wife pointed to a group of stars and said "go there". She had picked the Pleides. I warned her that the OC was much too big for a scope, but punched it in regardless (told her to go inside and get the binoc's, but she wouldn't go. Must remember them myself next time). Hoped to maybe pick up a bit of the nebulousy around one of the stars, but the moon was just too bright (and perhaps I didn't have enough power as well). By now, my fellow viewers were getting cold and either took off for home or went inside. I was, of course, warm and cozy in my full body hunting garb and boots. I was in for the long haul!

Picked M36 next. Man, what a sight! From a faint fuzzy in the binocs to several individual stars glowing in the night! Didn't see any backgroud haziness from the remaining stars though. Not sure if this was due to the moon being so bright, or if the scope was actually resolving the entire cluster (comments??). Anyways, figured this was a good time to check collimation, so racked the focuser one way, then the other. Perfect "hole" right in the center of the fuzzy halo both ways!

At this time, my wife stuck her head out the door and informed me I had a call from work. Had to go in for a half hour or so to take care of that. Came back out and the cluster was still right there in the center of view. Great system Meade has here! Decided M37 should be next. When the scope finished it's small hop, I looked through the EP to see nothing but a handful of hazy bright spots and a glowing cloud across the entire fov. Didn't take me but a second to realize what had happened, and a check of the corrector plate confirmed it. FROST!!! AAARRGG!!! I had made the mistake of leaving the scope pointing skyward when I had gone inside. It was fine when I came back, only to immediately frost over due to the miniscule air currents made by moving the scope. I tried heating some towels up in the dryer and draping them over the plate, but that only worked for a minute or two. As much as I hated to do it, I had to call it a night. . .

Overall, I can't say how tickled I am with this scope! It's not only a great way to view the heaven's, it even looks great sitting in the living room! Found myself walking up to it all weekend just to fiddle with it, or wipe a fingerprint off the tube. The Autostar worked like a champ, except for when I parked the scope for a short time and powered down. I hadn't realized I needed to reset the time when I powered back up, so it was running a couple hours off from actual time. Needless to say, this was easily resolved. Tracking was perfect, optics are excellent. Just a great all around piece of equipment! Yesterday, I got online and ordered a 6.4mm and 40mm EP (both Meade 4000 SP's) as well as a hard case from JMI and a dew shield. Yep, another $500 or so just like that! No one said this was going to be cheap, I guess! Anyways, figure I'm good to go for a while with these additional items. Hope so, anyways! Thanks all for sharing this with me. Can't wait til the next clear night, hopefully with no moon this time! Wally (aka. Jeff)

__________________
. . . My moustache is touching my brain!!!!

Good job! I'm going to run out and buy me one. (urp, guess not)

What I really want to know is how you snuck it outside without the skies immediately clouding over?

Just like with the other kind of baby -- you aren't going to get much sleep in the next few nights!

Utter coolness! Congratulations!

Silas