Lunar Panoramics and testing the mount

Finally, after nearly 2 weeks, I got the HEQ5 out for a session. Plonked it down, I was able to carry the entire thing all bolted together which is something, with the N leg in about the right direction, plugged in, swung the scopes to open the polar scope hole, swinging the dec (??) axis to set the current date and time on the circles, and started to polar align (I'd been dreading this bit, as I've got how important this bit is).

Anyway, I was having some difficulty polar aligning, I couldn't see Polaris, so I double checked and whilst I thought I'd set the altitude to 51degrees, I was sadly mistaken, quickly rectified that, and Polaris slipped into the FOV. Some adjustments on the bolts, Polaris slid into the correct point on the reticule. I have to say that the red illumination made this very easy.

The moon was up, so I swung around to that. Shifting each axis and getting closer with each move. It took a few moments, as the movements were peculiar, but I don't think it's going to take long to get used to this mode of movement.

I had a quick look with the 5mm Hyperion and Ultima barlow and I have to say, the view, once focused was superb. I did notice that I didn't have to wait anywhere near as long for the vibrations to settle, that's much better. Then I had a few goes at imaging the moon, I used the 2x Ultima Barlow (now how did that get bought, must have fallen in the basket when I ordered the mount) and as this gives about 2.5x with the 450d, I shot two frames and made a vertical panoramic out of it.



Then as there was some colour data in there, pushed up the saturation



I then swapped to the SPC900 (with the contrast booster attached) for some webcam attempts around Langrenus

With the Ultima, about 400 of 600 frames


And Colourised a little


As the seeing was so rough, I took out the barlow and just used the webcam, about 1200 of 1800 frames


Then as I was swinging around to look for Saturn, the power pack gave up and the mount wouldn't track or slew anymore. A quick check of the gauge and it showed as flat as a pancake. Serve me right for not charging it back up after playing with the movement controls a few times.

I have to say I needed that. The mount is far easier to setup and align than I thought it would be, and the same is true for the movement controls. Hopefully I'll get a few clear nights so I can test it out further.