Big Bertha 2.0: Finally Clear Weather
We finally had clear skies last night. After fiddling a bit with the collimation, I aimed at Saturn and I was reasonably happy. There was a bit of turbulence, so I was only getting fraction of a second periods when the image was really sharp. I didn't get any advantage going above 160x, but then again, with a mirror this large, 160x provides as much resolution as the 8" reflector does at 235x. (A 17.5" mirror should do better, actually, but this is only a so-so mirror.)
I'm still working on getting the balance correct, but at least the mount is able to track Saturn across the sky. I was still seeing some slight discrepancies--perhaps because I wasn't aligned on Polaris (which I couldn't see--at this latitude, darkness comes very late in June), and perhaps because I still need to move the scope a fraction of an inch to get the balance correct.
Tonight I may try and getting the digital setting circles working well enough to go hunting galaxies.
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