The first night was not expected to be good but after Moonset the skies were fabulous. My plan was to use the WO binoviewers to have at least something worthwhile to show off. I could not have tried anything else because I left the extension rings at home by mistake. I had put my DIY trusses in the
The next day I started out hiking the Tequepis trail across the street from the Cachuma lake recreation area. Got to the top in 1:18 from where I could look down on the ocean and lake Cachuma. I met the biker that I had been following closely all the way uphill and he admitted that I had been on his tail all the way. We had a fun chat about nearby trails and Mt Whitney that I had hiked a few days ago.
The second night I started with Saturn. The onshore wind was a major disturbance that shook the image around enough for me to have to wait for a quiet time. I don't know if the problem was my DIY trusses, or the DIY foldable stand that it was sitting on. The views had some fata morgana like effects as a result of the moisture in the air. I did not see that through other scopes that were more remote from the water.
I decided to check my collimation and, by accident, made a nice discovery. While checking the secondary collimation (laser dot in the donut), I noticed that the return beam reflected on a different spot on the secondary than the forward beam. It dawned on me that instead of using the Howie Glatter tublug I could simply try to get the reflected beam on the same spot on the secondary as the forward beam using the primary collimation screws. After doing that the views of Saturn were incredibly sharp. I have never seen Saturn that crisp in any scope ever. Same with Jupiter. Seeing the Moon was a revelation, not just to me but to others as well. I credit that mostly to the binoviewers (and the new collimation trick). It was incredibly sharp. It definitely encourages me to try this more often.
What did not work at all was my manual setting circles. I tested that by going back and forth between Saturn and Jupiter, calibrating on one and validating on the other. I was consistently off by about 5 degrees in Az! What the heck? Eventually I concluded that I have a significant cone error (angle between optical and mechanical axes) due to inaccurate drilling of the
The 2nd night was not that great, and the others packed up around 10 PM. To prevent another water bath from dew like after the first night, I decided to pack it up too before hitting the hay. The next morning I packed up the tent and took off around 8 AM. It was a fun weekend with some success, inspiration and good company. Not a whole lot of targets but I learned a lot about my equipment and how to make the best of it (unexpectedly well) for the few that I used.
Telescopes: GSO 12" Astrograph, "Comet Hunter" MN152, ES ED127CF, ES ED80, WO Redcat51, Z12, AT6RC, Celestron Skymaster 20x80, Mounts and tripod: Losmandy G11S with OnStep, AVX, Tiltall, Cameras: ASI2600MC, ASI2600MM, ASI120 mini, Fuji X-a1, Canon XSi, T6, ELPH 100HS, DIY: OnStep controller, Pi4b/power rig, Afocal adapter, Foldable Dob base, Az/Alt Dob setting circles, Accessories: ZWO 36 mm filter wheel, TV Paracorr 2, Baader MPCC Mk III, ES FF, SSAG, QHY OAG-M, EAF electronic focuser, Plossls, Barlows, Telrad, Laser collimators (Seben LK1, Z12, Howie Glatter), Cheshire, 2 Orion RACIs 8x50, Software: KStars-Ekos, DSS, PHD2, Nebulosity, Photo Gallery, Gimp, CHDK, Computers:Pi4b, 2x running KStars/Ekos, Toshiba Satellite 17", Website:
