RASC Hamilton Beautiful night on 16" last night

[Roger Hill]

Had a good time, too, Colin...with much the same result.

I was using an H-Alpha clip in filter and had difficulty focusing using
the little screen on the back of my modified T1i...I was using a 30
second exposure, with auto-dark frame, so it was a minute between
exposure attempts.

I thought I had pretty good focus at the site.  

I was wrong.

The big scope is excellent, though for piggy back work.  The Losmandy
plate could be moved so that anything mounted on it does not block the
finder scope, and I think a good idea would be to put a Vixen dovetail
"puck" on the other side.  

Regardless, it was nice to get back under clear skies with the big scope
again.  

Roger

-----Original Message-----
From: astronomers-bounces at hamiltonrasc.ca
[mailto:astronomers-bounces at hamiltonrasc.ca] On Behalf Of Colin Haig
Sent: Saturday, April 06, 2013 9:44 AM
To: astronomers at hamiltonrasc.ca
Subject: RASC Hamilton Beautiful night on 16" last night

Beautiful night last night - was out at the observatory for a few hours.

The 16" is working great, no issues with paramount - pointing flawlessly
and tracking very nicely. Perhaps it was the temperature changes and
frost/ice in the mount or something.

The main mirror is a bit dirty, but coatings look okay.

Roger handed me one of those snap-in filters for my camera, I managed to
get some shots of the rosette, and am processing them this morning.
Unfortunately forgot my glasses, so appear to have a bit of a focus
problem :-(

Anyway things appear to be working fine. If I get some spare time this
weekend, I will bring a UPS up to the site to protect the computer and
scope from power surges and outages.

Cheers
Colin



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