USER OBSERVATIONS Last updated: 11 January 2006

Subject:	Post for ETX Site
Sent:	Sunday, January 8, 2006 20:23:40
From:	MaxIPTer@aol.com (MaxIPTer@aol.com)
Just finished a great observing session with my "Mighty ETX" (125).  As
you may know, my ETX-125 was supercharged about a year ago by Dr. Clay
and it was well worth the cost.  Lately, I've been spending nearly all
my time with my 10" LX200 GPS scope and the 80mm piggyback scope doing
astrophotography.  Please see my homepage www.geocities.com/astrodad32
and my SkyInsight Gallery at
http://www.skyinsight.net/DeepSkyImager/gallery/album44

Tonight's session reminded me what a fine telescope this ETX-125 is and
of how far I have come as a passionate amateur astronomer in the past
few years.  There is so much to learn that we sometimes forget all that
we put into practice.

Tonight's session went like this.
 
--Level tripod (circular carpenter level),
--Set good home position (alt/az) by ensuring the rear cell lines up
with the dec bar on the field tripod's wedge
--Use setting circle to fetch 90 deg. on the OTA, then fine tune with
the carpenter's level for true level
--break out the illuminated reticle eyepiece for precise Easy alignment,
remove the now unpowered LED and shine a penlight into it.
--Hmmh, the scope moves opposite the up down arrows, go to telescope and
change that for true up down
--Precisely align that finder and the OTA because you don't want any
imprecisions in this fine little system
--check out the M38/6/7/5 open clusters for starters
--whizz over to M42 and check out the trapezium, recalling that you saw
SIX stars in it the other night at the Lone Star observatory.  Pump up
the mag with the bustout retail Televue 5x Powermate you bought and
imagine that you can see what might be 5 stars in the trap.
--Blast over to Mars and drink it in as it recedes
--Swing back to Mighty Saturn and see if you can find the Cassini
Division naked eye....yes there it is!

A great night and it took about a half hour from start to finsih.  I
wouldn't even have had "my LX200 GPS rig polar aligned in that time.
 
Cheers,
max

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