A few Faac astronomers

A few of us were at the observatory tonight to do work.

I arrived late. George Korody was already there and Tim Dey was there as well.

They worked on the drift alignment. George and Tin did most if the work, actually all the work. I basically watched and learned, which means I tried to throw out witty remarks and for the most part failed tonight as u was cold and didn't really warn up much during the observing or alignment times. It was mostly alignment work.

We took a quick look at Jupiter and tested the pointing accuracy looking at a few objects. M15, Sirius, the ring nebula, etc. The stars they chose for drift alignment, actually I forgot to note them down. But by the end of the session the alignment was complete. We didn't have time for the t point model, which is a more accurate model. We need to cold start and start the alignment process. They also looked for the latest comet that is making it's return and supposedly near 5.5 in magnitude but this is dispersed. The bright skies made it impossible for Tim to see the comet naked eye through the telescope.

George has a lot if good advice. I was happy to be there but to tired to be much good.

We also mounted a new f6.3 field reducer for the c14. This gives the c14 a wider field of view and an effective focal length of about f7 instead of f11. Meaning lower power but wider fields of view and it provides a flatter field if view.

That's it for now.

I'd show a photo but I was to tired to setup and get a good one. Hopefully we will have good viewing and have the scope in much better working order in the next few days.


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