Antares 127mm Third Light

A clear, cloudless night, 66 deg at 10pm, relative humidity 48% early on but rising to above 80% by the time I packed it in, with the full moon rising just as it gets dark. In Glass-Half-Full mode, I embrace this opportunity to see how well the 5" achro performs on the brightest object in the night sky.

Short answer: Not too bad! Maybe my color blindness has finally found a practical use, as I saw very little purple fringing on the lunar limb. The scope delivered very sharp views with the TV 32mm and 20mm Plossls; the 20mm at 61x and 50 deg AFOV fit the entire lunar disc perfectly. I tried the LVWs but thought they were a little soft in contrast. I noticed that my lunar filter didn't want to screw into the barrel of the LVW13; need to check to make sure the threads are OK.

I performed a two-star alignment on Arcturus and Altair, but it still couldn't place anything in the FOV, even with the LVW42 - it's gotta be off in altitude, because it should be close enough to north in azimuth to give it an adequate rough polar alignment. Damn trees!

Still trying to figure out the logic by which the Sirius chooses alignment stars - when I chose Altair first, Arcturus didn't even come up as an option for second alignment star; but when I chose Arcturus first, Altair did. How odd...

I didn't stay out long since it's a work night, and the full moon gets old fast. Saw a few moonbats (real ones, not the left-wing Bush-hating variety). After trying different eyepieces for an hour or so I packed it in.

SIde note: I exchanged a couple of emails with Orion tech support about the excessive play in the mount's RA axis; they seem to think it is a defective and suggested I either send it in for repair or exchange through the dealer, so I emailed Dave at High Point who agreed to swap it out with another mount head. Orion is sending one out, it should be here in about a week. Great service from both Orion and High Point!