Beautiful fall weather this three day weekend got me scrambling to fit in as much activity as possible...including looking up at the sky. I had not been out observing since moving to Northern Virginia six years ago. Went to the Sky & Telescope site for celestial highlights, printed skymap and track of comet Hartley 2 course. Friday night tried observing from our neighborhood -- waste of time because my eyes never acclimated to the dark and the sky never got dark. Don't feel safe at night in dark, out of the way places in the city. Sunday night went 40 miles WSW to C.M. Crockett Park -- a good site within a 1 hour drive. Six other scope buffs were there. By about 10pm the sky was dark. Conditions were clouds10%/transparency average /seeing above average. Good views of Milky Way, Jupiter (1 clear band, 1 hint of a band) with 4 moons, Andromeda galaxy, and 2 bright meteors. No sign of the comet. The printouts from S&T were most useful. Stool and card table made for comfortable work. The google skymap on my smartphone was erratic and killed my night vision.
Scope notes: 8" dob was satisfactory. Tracking was a little sticky, but it stayed put. Got most use from 40mm plossl and 2x barlow. Jupiter was very bright but lost detail with 10mm and 7.5mm. Ergonomics not great -- mount is compact for transportability, but it is too low to ground for comfortable seated or standing viewing. Finder and eyepiece positions are crowded. Initial thought is to raise scope for standing use, mount finder below eyepiece on tube. It gathers good light and with work this scope can likely pull more detail from planets. Top of focuser was 8 cm from outside of tube, adjusted 3 cm outward. Have not collimated system recently. Looking into tube the diagonal mirror does not appear turned directly toward the focuser. Also, it is fitted with an undersize diagonal mirror (1.75in) for an f4 to reduce central obstruction, haven't really tested it to ensure it is intercepting light cone at optimum point, has correct offset. This short f4 system is very easy to transport, and was designed/assembled with margin of error as first scope project. Goal is to optimize it for max resolution.
Checklist:
Clothing, warm comfy boots, & hat -- layers
bug spray
flashlights -- red, small, large maglight
thermos of coffee, liter water bottle, dinner, snacks,
handkerchief, bandana
card table & stool
beach chair
binoculars
scope and ocular lenses
map to site
star maps, observing plan -- black dots on white paper easiest to read
clear dark sky map for site
laptop, charger, power inverter
cell phone, charger
pens, pencils
book to read while waiting
heavy duty cargo cart (don't need for drive-on sites)
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