Mon 22 Apr. Manuel first contacted me about Iverson. Asked if I remembered him. Yes. The young man had attended the new owners telescope clinic in January. Manuel had been in communication with him. I guess about SCT telescopes, imaging, and so on. Now Iverson was telling Manuel his 11-inch SCT was out of collimation. Manuel offered to try to fix it.
Manuel invited me to join the two of them. They had set a date on Sat 27. In the parkette. Hmm. I was already leaning to getting out of Dodge. I was overdue visiting family. Needed to catch up on two birthdays.
Chatting on Facebook, I asked how Iverson knew it was off. Manuel had put him through some initial checks. "He was not able to focus on any star. That it looked as it was a comet. A little tail." Manuel verified he had cooled the large OTA. "He noticed that when [defocused] the stars were not 'like a donut'."
Ah. Not good. I thought it very strange though. I wonder how a brand new 'scope could not work right. I wondered where he had bought it. And when.
Manuel said he had met up with him. On this occasion, he noticed the OTA was not handled with great care. We wondered if it had been banged or dropped. I pointed out it was an Edge. So maybe something had happened at the back end.
Tue 23 Apr. When my out-of-town weekend plans solidified, I sent an email to Manuel offering my support. Invited him to instant message, email, phone, or Skype, while I was at Mom's.
Sat 27 Apr. Sent my coordinates. I suggested we could review procedures, cautions, advice on collimation. But then I saw the weather wasn't looking too good. I wasn't surprised when the two postponed to Sunday. And then they pushed again: the new date was Wed.
Tue 30 Apr. Looked like the weather might cooperate. Perhaps I could be present now. I asked Manuel if he wanted me to bring my eyepieces and mirrors? We could test known-good accessories in Iverson's telescope. Manuel said he was going to use his DFK to collimate. But I thought Iverson did not have a CCD camera.
I sent a long message to Manuel. I urged him to first collect data. Review the problem, check equipment and accessories, before assuming the collimation was off. That's why I had offered to bring my visual accessories. I didn't think it a good idea to immediately attach a camera and start fiddling with the collimation screws. What if it was just a bad mirror? I also thought using a camera might be inappropriate if it was not something Iverson could do later himself. Using equipment like he had (if he had a camera) would be best. So that he could become self-sufficient. Like how I had taught Manuel! I think he appreciated the "teach a man to fish" reference. I also reminded Manuel to check what tools would be needed to turn the collimation screws.
When I asked Manuel if Iverson was a RASC member, I think it hit him. He had just assumed Iverson had joined. It irked Manuel to learn he had not.
6:29 PM, Wed 1 May. Good skies! Reviewed my messages. Did not see a start time noted anywhere. Checked with Manuel. 7:30. OK.
7:20 PM. Hit the road. I had my Allen key set from the garage toolbox. Tiny screwdrivers sets, two. The eyepiece box was already in the car. Oh, and Manuel's spaceflight magazine, long overdue.
Arrived Manuel's. No answer at the door. I sat on the front step. Wardrived and checked messages. The van pulled up a few moments later. Turned out Iverson was already here, parked just ahead. He backed up and we proceeded to unload his gear.
Unbeknownst to me, Manuel and Iverson had discussion a hybrid solution: Manny's CGEM under Iverson's 11" OTA. OK. No worries. We hauled the Celestron mount and laptop from Manuel's living room. Then Manuel fetched more gear from his garage: table, chairs, power cords.
Iverson and I leveled the tripod. I then did a polar alignment. Manuel emerged from the house, took a look through the polar scope, and changed the mount. I wasn't sure why. But then he put it back: "It was pretty good." Thanks.
We aligned the red dot finder. Then attached his visual accessories and his eyepiece. Did a quick two star alignment. Yep. It was definitely off. Looked like rather poor collimation.
We swapped his mirror diagonal for mine. He too had a Williams Optics 2" dielectric. So I doubted there'd be a problem. Pointed out that if there was, there was nothing to be done about it. The WO diagonals did not present collimation adjustment screws. We saw the image quality was the same with my mirror. So, we eliminated that issue.
We tried some of my eyepieces. The problem remained. So it looked like it was definitely in the EdgeHd OTA.
We readied to change the secondary. Oh ho. A Fastar. Iverson didn't seem to know what this was for. I explained how the system worked. And that part of the problem could be here. We found that the secondary "receiver" was tight (unlike the NexStar 11 GPS at the CAO). Didn't look like there was a problem there. When Iverson turned the bladed cover, we spotted Philips head screws.
We chose a star up high, in Ursa Major. I stood on a step-stool and while Iverson watched at the ocular. I turned one of the screws and had him call out changes. We gradually improved the collimation. In short order, it was fixed up. Everyone was pretty happy. And I think Iverson felt good about the process. He saw it was pretty easy to do, although, ideally, a two person job. His confidence renewed. We swapped roles. I had him make a slight adjustment. Whew. Done. Done collimating by visual means.
Manuel started to connect his camera. We saw on the computer screen how the out-of-focus image appear. When I learned that Iverson had a Canon Rebel DSLR with live view, I suggested that he could do adjustments on his own. While not exactly the same setup as the CCD, I think he understood. He had a good sense of how to do it.
In the haze of imaging, perhaps sensing Manuel's urgency, I had us press on. To Saturn we slewed. After centring and focusing, we prepared to capture some video frames of the ringed planet. And, suddenly, the camera went down. Manuel started trying things, disconnecting, reconnecting, restarting the capture app, restarting Windows. No joy. He grew very angry. Every time he shouted I jumped. I surmised the neighbours were too.
I wondered if drivers or the application had been corrupted. But when Manuel said he didn't have them saved anywhere, then it was a matter of downloading them again. To make matters worse, without a signal, we had to return to the house. After a dozen minutes, I said that I was feeling a little uncomfortable. I was thinking of Iverson sitting outside on his own. It was almost like he forgot. I proposed to Manuel that we leave the software issue for a bit and head back outside. Manuel's ulterior motive became apparent: he had hoped to get good frames of Saturn in Iverson's large aperture tube. It would have been an interesting collaboration. But it looked like it was not to be. And he was none too pleased.
We found Iverson doing a bit of visual observing. But he said he had an early start. We helped him pack up his OTA and accessories.
11:30 PM. Iverson left. Satisfied. But now Manuel was especially hungry for Saturn.
§
Pitched RASC a bit. Both Manuel and I. Encouraged Iverson to consider joining. I discussed how to join online and how to affiliate with the Toronto Centre. I gave him my contact info. It sounded like he would.
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