Play Time

Well last night I finally got to do one of the things I came out here to do. I actually got my telescope out and set up, OK it was on the roof which is luminated by a street light but It was a beautiful clear night. So having hauled the mount (Which is no mean feat, that thing is heavy) up to the roof and got things basically aligned. We started to look around Venus was a spectacular crescent in the eye piece. Then we had a look at Saturn which was just amazing, crisp and clear though sadly the cassni division was not visible but I was only using the 80mm refractor. After a little hunt around for a while (Possibly seeing M51 but very faint) we then noticed that Jupiter was visible so we slewed over to that and were rewarded with beautiful image with the bands across the planet clearly visible. Then sadly we decided to call it a night. Overall though the clarity of the sky was fantastic and the seeing magnificent. Also the money spent on the mount was well worth it.

Now all I need is for our items to clear customs and to arrive here then I should be able to get the pillar drill out and mount the 10in Meade LX200R OTA