Waiting for dark

Wow! It has been a long time since my last post, nearly a year! I'm going to have to review the past year and catch up. For now, I'll simply record the fact that this year looks good for personal observing. Today I set up my big personal telescope to make certain everything was present and in working order. I tested the Safety Herschel Wedge by looking at a somewhat hazy Sun. Then I parked the scope, now waiting for dark. Only "fair" seeing conditions are expected tonight, and we've plenty of light pollution. Still, the big scope is set up for testing after a long time in storage. If alignment is good enough I'll mark the ground where the tripod feet rest! #astronomy #telescope #meadeinstruments

The 6-Inch Meade all set up for Tonight

LATER THAT NIGHT: How did it go? Pretty well. The scope worked great but the operator.... let's just say that it's pretty important to tell the telescope control system what the current MONTH is if you want it to point the telescope accurately! If you enter "June" as the month when it's actually April, you're in for plenty of frustration! I missed that simple data point several times. Ugh! Once manually aligned, the scope found objects pretty accurately without precise polar alignment. Through light-polluted, hazy cloudiness, I observed Jupiter with Io emerging from behind, saw the beautiful stars of M44 - the Beehive Cluster," saw the Hercules Cluster - M13 - as a fuzzball (no individual stars), and experimented with several eyepieces. I need a couple of really good eyepieces. Finished up around midnight, tore down and stowed the scope. Now it's off to bed!