A few minor discoveries

After a mixed day all round, the clouds parted a little early on for a brief tantalising glimpse of the moon and within 2 minutes had swept back in again and that was that for the night. Despite the forecast showing that it ought to clear up later on, it never did. Oh well, another night passes and no celestial viewing.

I did make a couple of small discoveries yesterday though. Whilst I was putting away after taking the pics with the Baader Clickstop, I noticed that the tripod on the NexStar mount had a bit of wobble in it. Later on in the day, I got the time to take a proper look. I found that the wobble was much more pronounced on one leg than the other two. Odd thought I. Anyway, the legs are attached via 5mm Allen bolt and nut. After a three quarter turn on the Allen bolt, I was able to give the other two legs a quarter turn, virtually all the wobble is now gone from the legs. The mount just feels so much more stable. This is good.

I also had a quick look at the dovetail that's fitted to the Celestron 60mm scope that came with the mount. I was amazed to find that it's been pre drilled with not one but two, standard 1/4" Whitworth holes for a standard Camera tripod mount. This is excellent news. It means that if I should ever get friends round, I can leave the Konus setup on the SLT mount for high power views on the moon, and use the 60mm for other things. This might sound odd as the 60mm has a longer focal length, but even so, the Konus can use more magnification due to the larger aperture. It also means that if/when I have an afocal imaging session with the Konus, I will still have a scope to use, albeit on a clunky camera tripod.

This now gives me,
1) Konus Nexstar Vista 80sLT,
2) Celestron 60/700 Frac on a tripod,
3) Celestron Up Close 12x50 on a tripod and my
4) 7x35 WA handheld.
5) 5mm and 17mm Hyperions. 32mm, 25m, 20mm, 17mm, 2x10mm, 9mm and a 6.5mm Plossl, a 5mm Ortho, a Tal X2 Barlow and 3x90 degree and 1x45 degree prism diagonals.

Not bad for someone who only started 5 months ago with a pair of bins.