Saturday, November 26, 2022

scared myself, twice

Mounted the C8 in the jury-rigged ring.

Seemed stable.

We are "OK to go."

The mount started to slide backwards. No counterweights! Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Oops. Pushed it forward. Tightened up the latitude lock... Looked like it would hold. Scooted inside and grabbed the μ bag (mu or mount bag) with the shaft and counterweights. Scooted back to the deck. Spun in the shaft and slid on two weights. Good.

Put the ETX90 inside.

Moved the Vixen tripod to the south-east corner. Good.

Started to shuffle it to the edge.

The tripod collapsed. Whoa! One of the central metal tangs had let go from the middle bracket. Crikey!

Oops. Lifted the whole heavy assembly up. Drew the north leg. Latched it back into place. Sigh.

Enough of this drama... My old heart can't take this.

Tensioned the legs outwards. Lowered the legs as low as possible. Affixed the 9x50 finder scope with Amici prism.

Spotted Jupiter.

No comments: