Batting .333

[Pete]

Out last night. Objectives were to help new member Dan Lynch collimate his scope, repair the club 8" SCT and capture the Coma Cluster.

Dan Lynch s.jpg (817.9 KiB) Viewed 943 times

Dan lives in Fall River and was unaware of the existence of a local astro group. He joined up online within hours of me telling him about us. And what a beautiful equipment collection he has collected. All the bells and whistles. The collimation of his Celestron 11" went smoothly and quickly.

The club scope is another matter. It doesn't accept some setup instructions and will no longer find targets because one can't even get that far with it. Worked on it for several hours both day and night without success. Possibly a bad encoder or corrupted software. And since the scope's 20 years old getting into the software isn't simple. Don't think that I can correct it.

The imaging was another disaster. The monitor's turned low but is still brilliant, and even with the camera wrapped in black cloth I'm getting light impingement.

Hitting .333 is great for a baseball player but a bit frustrating for an astronomer.

Anyway, please welcome Dad to our community.