Observing: Full Moon

An unseasonably clear night afforded me an opportunity to observe the full moon with the TV85, LVW13 and Powermate 2.5 (with lunar filter, o'course) for 115x magnification.

Once again I was awed by the TV85; not a hint of color at the edge where the bright moon met black space. There was little turbulence and the scope just snapped into focus, even at 115x with all the touchy-shakies. The scope is a champ, best damned astro-thing I ever bought!

As for the Moon, I was drawn to the western limb near Oceanus Procellarum: Balboa's rim was prominent against the black of space (Rukl chart 17). Further south, Schuller marked the start of the long mountain range Montes Cordillera (Rukl 39), running south, bowing eastward and offering a glimpse of Montes Rook (Rukl 50) at the very edge of the lunar limb. Both of these ranges encircle Mare Orientale (which is just out of view) as part of a large impact basin shown in this Lunar Orbiter photo taken in 1967. Great stuff!

Up north, the area above Plato (Rukl 3) was interesting - several craters near the limb - Carpenter, Anaximenes, Philolaus, Poncelet - and along the edge Pascal/Brianchon. Clouds moved in around 10:40.

A lunar eclipse starts at 4am, and the moon will set in totality just before 6am - no way I'll be up that early.

Orion EZ Finder Deluxe

This thing's been sitting around for months. Finally, I broke out the drill...

Observing: Sirius Shakedown

Sirius Mount + TV85 tonight. Tried something different this time: I chose 3-star alignment, then tweaked the mount's RA & dec to center on the first star (Altair), then completed alignment with Vega and Arcturus. Not perfect, but it it puts M29, M27 and M57 in the FOV of my LVW13! Beats the hell out of the so-called polar alignment scope which is a joke. I think this is the first time I've ever gotten decent alignment with the Sirius without multiple attempts (and associated hair-pulling and colorful language).

The Sirius/TV85 combo is really great. Even on the deck, I see hardly any shake while focusing or moving around. With tripod legs fully extended, the eyepiece is a little to high for comfortable seating on my trusty kitchen stepladder, but I think it would be perfect if I had real observing chair, so that's item #2 on my wish list, just after the camera adapter and accessories needed to properly connect the DSLR to the TV85.

GOTO'd through the usual suspects. Found that the farther west, the worse the GOTO accuracy. M13 and M92 completely out of the field of the LVW13, but easily found by slewing a bit. Left the rig pointed at M57; returned a half-hour later to find gone from the FOV. There's clearly work still to be done. Before breaking down for the night I turned off the power and tried to spot Polaris through the alignment scope. Not a chance through the tree.

Miscellaneous: Temp at 10pm: 70 deg F, 53% humidity, winds calm from the South. Orion 2" diagonal works like a champ. Whining noise from mount that was very noticeable during indoor tests isn't heard at all outside. Marked the position of the tripod vibration pads on the deck for future setup.

Observing: Back in the Saddle...

First night out with a scope since last September, using the TV85 + Porta for a brief viewing session. I'm happy to report that M29 is still there. I didn't stay out long, conditions weren't that great and humidity was getting bad.

I had all of the gear in storage at the Closter house, brought it all back to Lake Wallkill today with the intention of finally equipping the Antares 127 with the reticle finder and giving the 'new' Sirius mount a full shakedown, as I only had it outside once shortly after receiving the replacement unit from Orion.