Dave Wallace's Adventures in Astronomy

10/24/2003 2200 UTC

The weather cleared off enough to let me test my modified motors tonight. Results are still not that great (I still haven't done the TRAIN DRIVES, though). By the time I was unpacked and set up, I could see Polaris well enough to sight it. I had the scope aligned within less than a degree and level to the limits of the dinky little bubble level in the tripod. My hack carpentry isn't all that square, but I figure I should still be within the 7-1/2 degree field of view of the finder scope when I slew. Instead, I'm off around 10 degrees going from "parked polar" position to Mars (which was near culmination in the south). Slewing from Mars to Arcturus put me outside the FOV for the finder scope, too. Going from Arcturus to Mizar got me within the finder scope, but not within the FOV of the 26mm eyepiece.

I saw no evidence of the aroura that was predicted, but the lights from Nashua, NH, would have drowned it out anyway, most likely.

So I decided to try for M31. I could *almost* make it out by eyeball, which is unusually good conditions for Chelmsford, MA. I set the Autostar slewing to Almaak. It wound up about half way between Almaak and Mirach. After correcting (and SYNCing), I told the computer to find M31. The angular distance between Almaak and M31 is only about 15 degrees, but the slew error was over two degrees, which meant I had to hunt for M31 since it wasn't in the FOV of the eyepiece. Anyway, I located it. The galaxy wasn't any more impressive than it had been on the previous viewing session, but the surrounding sky was quite a bit darker.

By then I'd been out in the cold (35 degrees F!) for about an hour. I had found out what I needed to know: the random slewing had stopped but the positioning was still way off. If the forecasted rain holds off, I'll re-do the TRAIN DRIVES operation Saturday or Sunday. I think it will be Tuesday or Wednesday before the night sky is clear again, though, so further testing will have to wait until then.