It has once again
been some time since I last updated these pages and I
have had some excellent observation sessions during this
time.
I had
to wait till I could get hold of a
collimator
and get my telescope aligned, as the images I was seeing
left a lot to be desired. Once I did it was a simple
task to adjust the mirrors to get a good, clear image
and so I could start observing in earnest. The telescope
then behaved perfectly, slewing to the Great Nebula in
Orion when I told it to, and I saw it in better detail
than ever before.
I
chose a night when the skies were clear for the first
time in months and went through the 2-Star alignment
procedure. (I might add that I probably jinxed us
here in Australia when I made a comment on an American
astronomy group forum that we could do with some rain
over here—and it promptly started raining and kept on
going for months)
With
Auto Two Star Align, after entering the date, time and
location information, you select a star from a list of
the brightest stars currently above the horizon. You
must then manually slew to that star. After centering
the first star the telescope will then automatically
slew to a second alignment star.
I
then directed it to Jupiter, which was favourably
gracing our skies at the time, and for the first time
actually saw the cloud bands when I used the 9mm
eyepiece with a 2X Barlow! I was ecstatic! This was what
I was supposed to be able to see with the 130 SLT, so it
goes to prove how important it is to keep your
instrument properly collimated.
On
another occasion I thought I should venture back to
Orion and see if I could find the Trapezium. I had
bought a copy of Australian Sky and Telescope which
contained a feature on the constellation of Orion and
all of its hidden treasures, including the Horsehead
Nebula and the Great Nebula in Orion.
When
I slewed the telescope to the former I couldn’t see
anything which didn’t surprise me since the Horsehead is
a very hard prize to catch—even with a larger telescope
than mine. I then slewed to the latter and zoomed in on
the star near the “Fishes Mouth” and, by using a
Barlowed 9mm eyepiece and averted vision, was able to
discern that the star was in fact the four stars which
formed the Trapezium.
Now
this is what Amateur Astronomy was all about and for the
first time since I had bought the telescope I felt that
I had accomplished something worth writing about.
At
this stage I have only started to experiment with
connecting the Celestron NexImage CD camera to my laptop
and making sure I can get an image from it. When I get a
good cloudless night I will be taking both my telescope
and my laptop out into the back yard and seeing how the
camera goes on some deep space observing.
One
of my main purposes is to enable the rest of my family
to see what I have been seeing through the eyepieces so
that they can become as enthusiastic as I am about my
hobby. I have to say that it was my wife Jill who
suggested that I get the camera, so that was a step in
the right direction as far as fostering my ongoing
involvement in Astronomy.
Till
the next update, Clear Skies.
Robert Smeallie
