14th April 2010 - Report

I had some really good success in repairing my mount over the last couple of days. Thanks to some very helpful chaps over at AstroChat, they were able to provide me a link to a site that explained polar setup and alignment, for the EQ6, in a simple way.
I took the mount out yesterday (13th) in day light hours and had my laptop by my side so I could glance over the guide when needed.
After 20 minutes of work it seemed I had everything working perfectly again so rather than fiddle a bit more with it I left it for the next clear night to test it out, which turned out to be sooner that I thought.

So tonight was clear and I was itching to try out my collimated polar scope so I got the mount setup by 21:30 and the movement of everything in the polar rectal was really nice and pleasing to see.
After a short bit of fine tuning I got my 10" Orion mounted and started to get ready for a short observing session.

When it came to star alignment for the scope my selection was limited. From my back yard the view of the sky is limited to the North, part of the East, zenith and that's pretty much it. A three star alignment was just not going to happen so I decided that a two star alignment would be a great way to test out my work so I choose two stars and then the moment of truth came. With a wonderful feeling both alignment stars were only short distance out of the FOV and once alignment was complete I was anxious to test the GOTO accuracy, so first up was M51- as it was almost straight over head - and the mount stopped with the galaxy almost dead centre of the FOV in a 8mm eyepiece.
With success at hand I decided to make a night of it and since I had a clear view of Ursa Major right down to Leo it was an ideal time for me to start the galaxy hunt I've been wanting to do in that area of the sky for a long time now.
I never took my diary out to make note of my observations so I just wrote down each object on a piece of paper.

The observations for the night are as follows: 

M51 = Very good, strong structure and spiral arms could be seen.

M101 = Average, mainly a smudgy blur with washed out details.

M63 - Very good, with strong structure and looking bright along with some nice details.

M107 = A decent view.

NGC 4102 = A nice view, with a Milkyway star placed at the foreground of the galaxy.

NGC 3953 = A very good view.

NGC 4026 = Very nice.

NGC 4088 = An average view.

NGC 4157 = Very good.

M94 = WOW! Great detail in the nucleus and disk.

NGC 4618 = A nice view with another galaxy in the FOV that isn't listed or shown in any of my star maps.

NGC 4490 = WOW! Another fine sight and again has another galaxy in the same FOV.

NGC 5005 = Decent.

NGC 5033 = Decent .

NGC 4145 = Very faint, not a lot to see.

NGC 4244 = A beautiful and very fine looking edge on galaxy.

NGC 4214 = Decent.

NGC 4203 = Quite faint.

NGC 4395 = Too faint to see anything, even with AV it was hard to tell if anything was there.

NGC 4631 = Quite nice.

NGC 4656 = Decent.

NGC 4314 = Decent.

NGC 4274 = Nice.

NGC 4278 = Decent.

NGC 4251 = Faint.

NGC 4136 = Faint.

NGC 3626 = Faint.

NGC 3608, 3607 =  A nice view.

NGC 3655 = Faint.

NGC 3686 = Decent.

NGC 3596 = Faint.

NGC 3593 = Decent.

NGC 3628, M65, M66 = A very nice sight tonight, looking strong with some nice details.

Saturn = A very fine sight with good details and three moons visible but thermals from the roof my house was causing it to dance in my eyepiece from time to time.

M97 = A decent view.

M13 = Average.

That completed my night and I was feeling very pleased and also quite astonished with how my galaxies I was able to get through.
There aren't enough nights like these. I am hoping that my next night out at Bragan will be one where everything goes to plan and works really well like tonight.

10th April 2010 - Report

There had already been several days of fantastic high weather as we are being blessed by a lovely high pressure system, so predicting clear night a few days ahead was a lot easier to do. I had made the suggestion to have a BBQ with an observing session afterwards. 
The day was lovely with sun shine and warmth. Five members, including myself and one non member join me for the evening as I invited him to come along. 


The evening started of great with great food, tea and coffee going around and during our munching a couple on a motor bike stopped to find out what we were up to. 


Eventually we all had our gear set up and were waiting for Venus to make her appearance but during that we were displayed with a lovely sun pillar, which I hadn't seen in years. 
Eventually Venus was spotted and then Mercury quickly after. 
Soon after that it was now dark enough for me to set up my mount and get it polar aligned but I'd been having GOTO accuracy issues due to my polar scope being poorly collimated so I tried to make some adjustments to improve it but in my efforts I made it so much work but allowing a part to fall out. I tried my best to get things up and running but the GOTO just got worse and worse. 
I did get a very nice view of Saturn, which tracked very well to for a while, but after that I decided to pack up and just socialise for a while. 


On the nice side, word of our presence at Bragan spread across the locals and eventually we have quite a group of people showing up, wanting to see things and asking so many questions. It was a pleasure to talk and show these people their first views of the heavens through a scope. 


Another down side is that cloud started to thicken a bit and with the lack of wind it just hung in the sky. 


I think it was around midnight when we all begun to pack up. I wasn't happy about leaving early but with no scope to observe with and being under dressed I reluctantly left. 


With my mount in dire need or repairs an maintenance this probably means the end of my observing for season... 


Below are some pictures of the evening: