Opened: Tuesday, 4 November 2014, 1808 MST Temperature: 64°F

Session: 739 Conditions: Clear

This night I continued trying out two new accessories that I purchased from Oceanside Photo & Telescope at this past weekend's Arizona Science and Astronomy Expo. On the previous session I used my new Baader Planetarium Hyperion Zoom 8-24mm Mark III Eyepiece and William Optics Binoviewers on the 8" LX200-ACF telescope. This night I set up the ETX-105PE and tried both accessories on it. I set up the ETX-105PE in front of the observatory:

That "ghost" inside the observatory is my 8" LX200-ACF covered up since I did not plan to use the 8" this night.

I initially had a strange, never before experienced, problem with the AutoStar #497 on the ETX. Although the date, time, Daylight Saving, Site location, and time offset were all correct, the AutoStar continually had the alignment stars in a "Spring" sky. Once I set the Date, Time, and time offset to Universal Time, the alignment stars were correctly placed. I will do some troubleshooting on that problem at a future date.

1847 MST: with the AutoStar finally aligned, I viewed the moon using the Meade 26mm eyepiece (57X). I then started testing the Baader zoom eyepiece:

I also viewed Mars, M13, and M57 using the zoom eyepiece.

After I completed the tests with the Baader zoom eyepiece, I began using the William Optics Binoviewers:

Viewed the moon, M13, and M57.

1947 MST: ETX tests completed. My product reviews will be posted soon.

Closed: Tuesday, 4 November 2014, 1958 MST Temperature: 55°F

---

Comments are welcome using Email. If you are on Twitter you can use the button below to tweet this report to your followers. Thanks.

Tweet

---

Previous report

Cassiopeia Observatory Home Page