2nd February 2011 - Replacement Base.

After months of waiting for my new, replacement, base to be sent to me for my 14" Skywatcher it finally arrived on the 31st of January. 

As you can imagine I was very eager to get out and test it to make sure it was working as expected. There was a lovely clear spell last night - 1st February - but just as I was ready to turn on the power button the sky was completely covered in cloud and it was only a few moments before that when I looked up and saw stars everywhere. Very annoying but rather than just pack up I decided to test the parking mode as this was terribly inaccurate on the faulty base. I was thrilled to see that it was parking properly so this was promising. 

Today was a real chance to get out with clear skies forecast for most of the evening. I go set up very quickly and was amazed to see that collimation was very close to being spot on. Of course when I was ready to turn on the mount and test it was cloudy again but I waited it out and patiences prevailed. I got enough clear skies to get a really good test and I am delighted to say that all is working well. 

All that is left now are some great clear nights this spring and lots of time up at Bragan to do some serious galaxy hunting!

I feel good times ahead...

26th January 2011 - Report

At long last, my first proper observing session of the year and thank goodness, it has been too long thanks to a deadly long, cold and icy winter.
I've recently started observing at a farm yard just up the lane of my house and am very impressed with the conditions. Light pollution is low and quite a bit of the horizon can be seen and there is also quite good shelter from the wind. This is also where I observed for this session.
I wasn't out very long but that was because work was extremely busy so I had to be in bed for a resonable time.

Equipment = Orion 10" and EQ6 Pro

Start Time = 20:04

NGC 891 = Not much detail but the structure was solid and well seen with averted vision.

M31 & 32 = Very bright and nice.

NGC 2403 = A very nice sight. Strong structure and averted vision revealing some nice spiral arm and cluster like details.

M1 = Superb structure but little detail.

M78 = Really good nebulosity to be seen with some faint details around the edges of the stars.

M42 = Mind blowing. I thought I saw al in the 14" a few months back but this really was a view that topped them all. The FOV in the 17mm Hyperion was just a feast from edge to edge with gorgeous dark lanes and details running all through the nebula.

NGC 1662 = A nice small grouping of stars and a first time seeing this.

NGC 3194 = A bit faint but still a beautiful small cluster to observe and for the fist time too.

NGC 2169 = Another beautiful small cluster that is really worth looking at. The stars are very bright and grouped in a lovely pattern. To me part of the group looked like a butterfly spreading its wings out.

Finish = 21:17