first light on pier (Union)

It is fantastic!

After dinner, after tidying up the kitchen, and to take a break before dessert and birthday stuff, we headed out to the loft observatory. I wanted to show off what I had done. I was excited to see how everything worked.

I led Donna and Steve through the darkened back yard. The sky was good, cloud-free, moonless. We tried to not trigger the security lights but were unsuccessful. We could see the red glow from within the studio! Funny. Inside, we turned on the fireplace, and took in the space (as best as possible in red light). There was lots of light actually. We headed up to the loft. I grabbed the extension cord and plugged in the mount motor. We took to the deck. Steve only hit his head once. Mom joined us shortly afterwards.

I tagged Jupiter. It was low in the trees to the south. We could see three of its moons (Callisto and Io on one side, Ganymede on the other, Europa hidden). Too low and distorted to see cloud bands. Everything tinted yellow. I tried to use the Meade orthoscopic 18mm but once again couldn't get to inner focus. Grrr. I put my Plössl 26mm in.

We reviewed constellations (Delphinus, Cygnus, Cassiopeia) and some Messier objects. Mom relayed with enthusiasm the story I had told her earlier about people in March trying to view all the 110 objects, the Messier marathon. We viewed the Summer Triangle, Mom operating the green laser.

We looked at the Pleaides, naked eye, and through the eyepiece. Of course, it filled the entire field. Donna liked the bright stars.

Mom spotted the Milky Way. It was bright through Cygnus. Steve spotted a meteor travelling from east to west, a Leonid I suspected.

I showed Albireo and later the Double Double.

I tried to find the Ring Nebula but didn't have any luck. With or without the Telrad.

Finally, I showed the Andromeda galaxy, straight up. It was stunning, edge to edge, overall bright, and very bright in the centre. Donna was intrigued. I explained that the view from Andromeda would show our galaxy in a similar way.

We spotted Orion rising in the east, belt vertical, Saiph or κ (kappa) Orionis still too low to see.

It was cool and damp. We heard the pie in the kitchen calling our name.

The eyepiece view kept drifting. I assumed it was my (bad) alignment to celestial north. So I turned the mount about one degree to the west. Later I realised the clutch wasn't fully engaged. Still, I marked the mount and pier. I'll do a full, slow, proper alignment over the holidays...

It was amazing. The loft works. The workspace in red light is very nice. The deck works. The pier works. There is no discernible vibration from the deck into the 'scope! Mom wants to fill the steel post with cement. I believe this will dramatically improve the damping.

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Steve entertained the idea of sleeping in the studio. Stay close to the 'scope; wake just in time to see something! Cool idea.

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Donna wants some seating for the deck. It's definitely required (although I think it should be temporary). Regular lawn chairs would be good. Also, a chaise lounge, for whole-sky and meteor watching.

Mom still likes the idea of some external shelves to hold things like eyepieces and beverages.

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My eyeglasses broke again. And, again, I got lucky: I did not lose the lens or little, tiny bolt!