Monday, December 28, 2009

Another rare clear December night. Set up primarily to test the Nexstar 5 to make sure it was fully operational prior to sale. Moon a couple of days shy of full, very bright, but relatively clear.

This night was largely about equipment. The N5 checked out well and then I set up Celeste (the N11) with Tia (the piggybacked 102) to test the tube collimations and try various diagonal/eyepiece configurations. 1.25" vs. 2" star mirrors vs. 1.25 erecting prisms, etc. Tried splitting Rigel and Castor with both scopes (in one instance the 102 was better; I probably need to install Bob's Knobs and collimate the N11).

Did a little lunar observing, again trying to figure out various merits of polarizing filters, and erect vs. reversed images. Also positioning of the piggyback eyepiece (45 degree diagonal vs. 90 degree).

Moon looked very good, will need to do some serious observing soon.

ET cluster was reasonable, but did not compare well to Jon's Newt.