Reinstalled Cooley clock drive

Spent the evening at Stephens Memorial Observatory (SMO) tonight and finally got the mechanical clock drive reinstalled. I still must hang the drive weights and test the system (especially running speed) but I believe the hard part is done. To celebrate I took a look at Saturn. That was a little difficult because it was very high in the sky. I wound up kneeling on the floor to observe. Skies were clear but not the most transparent. Still the view was very good at around 100X. There was a hint of banding in the body of the planet and I could make out the shadow of the planetary sphere falling across the ring plane. Too uncomfortable to view for long, though! The Moon had risen so I used the brilliant --BRILLIANT-- full disk to better align the finder scope. It will probably take two hands to do that job right, but aim is better than it was. I had two visitors: a man with his son who saw lights on and decided to see the telescope. They arrived just after I did so they got no observing and apologized for dropping in and distracting me from my work. Hey, it is great to have such interest in the reawakening of SMO! Closed up the dome at 9:45 PM and headed for home. The sky went from clear to overcast during my trip home so I guess things timed out just fine.