Backyard Sketches

I finally got around to sorting out the Moonlight focuser I attempted to fit to my 12″ reflector many, many moons a go and get the collimation sorted so I could start using the scope again this Sunday just gone. It was fairly straight forward in the end, and I even got to play around with the CATSEYE collimation tools I bought even longer a go than the focuser disaster.

I can definitely see how well the sight tube works for aligning the secondary mirror, and even though I was confused by its use on Sunday, after having thought about the issue I had since, I can see where the confusion came from and hopefully the weather will cooperate sometime soon and I can have another attempt at getting things spot on!

I didn’t attempt to use the autocollimator as the issues I had with the sight tube meant I had an “open system” and the images in the autocollimator were not dark enough as a consequence. I got the collimation as close as I could with a 1.25″ Cheshire and Laser and called it a morning.

Because the weather forecast for Sunday evening was favourable I left the scope setup in my backyard, planning to do some observing Sunday evening, especially now the evenings are closing in and things are looking pretty dark by about 18:30 now.

Of course, at 18:30 people are still awake and moving around their houses, switching lights on, switching lights off, walking into their own backyards triggering five million watt security lights and letting their pet dogs out that bark at the sound of a pin dropping 55 AU away.

I’m not bitter.

It was also really quite cold that evening so the scope was covered in dew, which wasn’t a problem (or didn’t seem to be a problem) as it hadn’t affected the primary or secondary mirrors so I could still see stuff. Unfortunately it did completely mess up my Telrad Finder meaning that I could really aim the scope anywhere to see anything. I have also moved the Telrad slightly on my scope meaning that it needs quite a significant realignment, and as it was so badly dewed up, I couldn’t really see much through it to achieve anything.

So, after going out at around 18:30, I packed at around 19:00, cursing at neighbours, lights and dew

Maybe next time!