Post by -=CROMAN=- on Feb 16, 2012 21:03:22 GMT -6
I had a chance to take out the C8 with the Byers Worm drive this evening for a little testing. This was my first time trying to perform a polar alignment with wedge. As daunting as it was I managed a half way decent polar alignment.
I used a celestron 20mm and a meade 18mm wide field EP this evening. I wasnt very impressed with the 18mm as it was not as bright as the celestron 20mm but it is good for public outreach.
The C8, while still suffering from bad hex screws, performed adequately after a collimation. Stars were near pinpoint with very little coma and some nice banding was seen around Jupiter.
The Byers drive performed spectacularly! I was able to get the Orion nebula centered in the 20mm, walk away for 30 minutes and come back to it with very little drift! This was the first real test of the drive and it lived up to everything I read about it. The next clear night I will definitely by attaching a one of the webcams to it and see what I can pull in on the laptop.
I ended my evening with a decent view of Mars just as it was clearing the treetop across the street from me. It was still pretty low in the atmospheric muck that the view wasn't spectacular, but ive yet to see a spectacular view of mars visually in any scope.
The hunt for my next piece of equipment is going well and Bill has been a great help. Thanks Bill!
later...
