The FireLite Controller is small, has two RCA outs, the power in, one little button, and one 3.5mm RGB LED. We read the instructions a couple of times to figure it out the programming. Got the eyepiece and corrector heaters running at 50% to 60%.
9:47. As I returned to the Observing Pad from the house, I heard Steve, in the Geoff Brown Observatory, exclaim, "Wow! Woooow!" There was a pause. Then: "Look north!" And caught the remnants of an extremely bright fireball, under Cygnus, heading north. Incredibly bright—blue white.
He apologised for being tongue-tied. It was fantastic by his account, colourful, and broke into fragments. Ian W saw it too. Our own little Chelyabinsk. We hoped the UWO cameras caught it.
Perhaps event 1442 as reported at AMS?
11:38. I helped Justin a little with his new big 16" f/4.5 LightBridge Dobsonian. Earlier Phil had helped him with collimation. Now he wasn't sure the 4.7mm ocular could come to focus. No problem. I dialled in Saturn. A very nice view! Pointed out that at that power it would be challenging to get, and keep, Saturn in the FOV! The eyepiece was an Explore Scientific 4.7mm 82° (1¼"). We roughly calculated the power to be 350x.
I found it interesting when he said he got it to help him learn the sky. Ha! He's going backwards; despite having a telescope for some time, being a go-to, he's lost. Good for him.
11:53. Risa hollered. Something was wrong with the new gear. The controller was not flashing red. When "rebooted" it would briefly flash then stop. We found the problem went away when we removed the small wrap. I wondered if the two heaters were overloading the controller. Didn't make sense. Thing's brand new.
I left the gang at the pad. Tom was observing with his Dob, Thomas with his refractor, Elaine and Tony flanking Risa with their new refractor.
Ostap's POD light was still on...
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Risa got a nice shot, saved up on Facebook, of the Milky Way over the south lawn.
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