Astronomy

Vacation Tuesday. Slept in today, I was awake a lot in the night. The day went fast. We went uptown for some errands. I didn't feel up to a walk.  A new focuser draw tube for the DS102 arrived. I installed it and the 2" diagonal fits well.  But the focuser body is worn; the drawtube rocks up and down. I'll install some shims or maybe some metal tape or ball bearings.  I also got some SMT electronics parts in.  Spaghetti dinner tonight. 

Vacation Monday. Slept in till 8:30, nice breakfast of scrambled eggs. Received 2" diagonal, fitted to DS102. Took tests to Brent M's. Washed down cupboards, cleaned behind fridge.  Lunch of pizza! Removed Bonnie's wheel disks so she can get her snow tires on. Had lovely walk at French Fort Cove, 4400 steps. Went to Co-op and got new shutoff valve for toilet (old one wouldn't stop leaking) Did some midweek schedule stuff. Drained plumbing and soldered in new shutoff; no leaks! Great roast beef supper, listening to Erik Satie.  Clear sky! Half Moon, so no deep sky in the evening. Observed Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Pleiades, Hyades, and the Sword Handle double cluster. Everything was bright, but there was a high haze of ice crystals that prevented great detail. It made the clusters look very nice though. Compared and verified that the DS102 has superior performance.  I thought I might get up early in the morning to view M42, but I didn't sleep well with my sore back. So...

I took a few minutes to repair the electric focuser controller on Saturday. It was raining brutally during the day and evening. So I was surprised when I looked out the window at 6:05 to see stars! By the time I got coat, boots etc to go out, the sky was already much brighter. 150mm Newtonian: I tested the 16mm 82* eyepiece with and without an Svbony UHC filter on M42, low in the west at this point. It was faint without the UHC filter and noticeably brighter and clearer with it.  So the UHC filter works.  I'll be kicking up the voltage (12v?) on the focus controller and adding a speed controller. At present it's too fast for a 4mm and too slow for the 34mm.

 Very cold but clear last night. 6" Newtonian - Viewed M27, M81 & M82, M101 Ring nebula took magnification very well M81 elongated but slightly irregular.  M82 a hazy patch. I think I just saw the core.  Tried in vain for M101, but I did follow the star trail to it: The triangle of 84, 86 and HD120915 just nicely filled the 34mm FOV. I verified them by the faint stars at the base. I then jumped to the 3 little stars west of 86, but M101 was not evident. There was a haze coming in from the west, so I blame the seeing.  Electric focuser died, switched to DS102 refractor Photographed Jupiter but they just came out blurry. M31 visible, no sign of M33 in 6", DS102 or 50mm finder scope Too cold, tidied up and put all away. 

Observing at 05:30 with little cloud. ~Bortle 5 or 6. Temperature -10c.  Telescopes: 60mmF6.7 and 100mmF8 refractors. Eyepieces: 16mm 82* UWA Angeleyes (Astro-tech), 40mm 43* Celestron Omni Plossl 60mm refractor  40mm gives vast view of Orion belt, all 3 stars,  16mm is about the same tFOV, but much wider aFOV. 100mm refractor  M42 is big and bright in 100mm with 40mm Plossl. 16mm UWA gives about the same tFOV. Whole of M45 in both 40mm Plossl and 16mm UWA.  

Bought a Meade DS102 from a man in F'ton on Saturday. He brought it to MVHS for me in the morning, then the Missus and I headed down to Moncton. At the Hospice Shop, they had what looked like the same scope with an added box of eyepieces for $100 less! Turned out to be a DS2090, but still a great deal. Both were non-functional mechanically, so I disassembled and found the DS102 was put together wrong. The DS90 just needed cleaning and lubing. t doesn't look like it was ever used. Both assembled and working well mechanically. I took parts from the DS2090 to get the DS102 working. The DS90 works manually only. After watching for a decent sized refractor for years, I find 2 in 1 day. :|  Star test, they are very close in performance, but the DS102 more easily shows Polaris B.