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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Chicago Astronomer Mini Shake Out Star Party

29 March 2013

Hey kids...

It's clear, cool and much needed scope time is called for.

I will head up to the usual Chicago Astronomer Observation area to test out the new CG-5 Go-To Mount with smaller scopes, (C5 SCT/102mm Refractor). Not the C11 Beast for this session.

I will arrive on-scene at 7:30 pm and stay for a couple of hours in this test session of equipment. Look for the scopes, as I may be closer to lakeside for this session....maybe by the Galaxy rocks/Doane Observatory etc... Can't miss us.

I need to shake out this new mount and practice alignment procedures before the busy observation season is upon us. If Chicago Astronomer fans and friends wish to come out and join us, please do and share some time with Astronomers, as we pick out various celestial objects via computerized telescope. I expect some hidden gems to appear in the eyepiece.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Semi-Successful Test Session...

Setting up closer to the Adler Building for this quick session, I arrived at 7:30 pm and brought the 102"mm Celestron refractor, C.A. Bill brought his Williams Optics 4+" Refractor and C.A. Steve brought along his new astro imaging set-up...

For me, this was the first shake-out test of the new CG-5 mount. Now, I was getting conflicting cues from the mount - physically. I had already preset the latitude angle to Chicago way (42 degrees), but sighting through the polar scope opening....it was aimed much too high. Bringing it down to where I could sight Polaris was waaay lower than 42. So leaving it there, I attempted to align the mount, but it was not having it....slewing to unwanted areas of the sky.



I re-angled it back up to what the latitude indicator said it should be, with Polaris just barely within the sight....and it now started to behave properly.

This needs a re-visit.

Did my alignment stars and calibration stars...and the mount worked pretty well - but the skies hazed over something awful....and not even the Great Orion Nebula was showing much of anything. But the mount did what it was supposed to do, punching in targets...and getting it very close to center i the eyepiece.


Bill was having good razor sharp images with his W.O Refractor - fittted with binoviewers...

A great looking Jupiter and close paring of Satellites were enjoyed by the crew.

Fellow Adler Telescope Facilitator Tom stopped by to join us for a bit...

I was using the newly installed app "Luminos" - which I feel is one of the top iPad apps for not only detailed sky charts, but for future Remote Telescope control.

Chicago Astronomer Support Crew Maria also stopped by for a short bit to say hi...



Still too cold for extended sessions.

Chicago Astronomer fan and Helicopter pilot Thom read the star party notice and came out. I enjoyed explaining the winter/spring objects and slewing the scope for him...

I still need to shake out this mount some more before utilizing it for public observation usage. The limited Ci700 mount will do and still be the main set-up for the C11....at least till I tweak the CG-5 for heavy duty. The cheap substandard grease that Celestron packs in the gears was getting stiff in the cold and one could hear the change in pitch. Hypertune when it gets warmer.

At 10:30 pm, we broke down our site and called a night. I thought that the time just flew by much too soon. More test sessions soon.

The test crew for this session.