Things are looking good for another observation session, the sun sets at 19:58 and the moon also sets at 19:48, dark sies in my Bortle 5 backyard with clear skies according to the forecast.  I set the scope up and finished rough polar alignment at about 19:00 and I did not forget to put the counterweight on and balance the rig this time. Tonight, is going to be observation and working with just the SynScan hand controller.  Let’s master that before moving into PC control. Now we wait for darkness.

I believe I figured out the issue with computer control from last time. The mount reports only 10 volts applied from my brand-new Orion Dynamo Pro.  It appeared to run everything fine except the USB port.  Searching on time outs in EQ Mod led me on to the power issue.  I put a car jump battery on it and it’s giving 11 volts, the minimum required according to the docs on the mount. However, the com port was still timing out.  I have thoughts on how to still utilize the Orion battery, if I can’t get it taken care of in warranty, since it has an AC outlet on it. More on that later. 

Success!  One hiccup with the mount at the beginning, the manual slew buttons quit working again but I am thinking now that was because my fingers pushing buttons excitedly without knowing which ones I was pushing.  A power cycle restored everything this time and the next two hours were spent scanning the night sky of my backyard.  I ended up mounting the Canon to the scope on the tube ring’s 1/4 20 mount point.  I was concerned that it would interfere with the finder scope but it didn’t.  I learned basic camera control with the mount via the snap port and hand controller.  Took some test shots, 2 10 second exposures 10 seconds apart.  Nothing was in focus, but I didn’t make the effort to do that.  My goal tonight was also not to really take images but learn basic telescope functions. And I’ve got a lot to learn.  I am quite impressed with the tracking, it seemed to be dead on target between the two test shots.  Blobs of light didn’t move between the two in each set.

I spent the next two hours reveling in what my eyes could not see.  Lenses used were a 1.25” 25mm LE and 1.25” 2x Barlow.  I tried using a 1.25 5mm LE but didn’t get anything really out of it.  I discovered that it helps to point the scope at something using one of the finders then go to the 5mm.  I decided to stick with the 25mm for the evening because of the expanse that it showed me.  I would have spent more time but I need to make a trip in the morning so I called it an evening and broke everything down.

Plans for my next session are to get the camera working with APT mounted to the tube rings.  So, while it’s imaging, I can gaze at the wonders of the sky at the same time.  I think I’ll use this approach for the time being as it will allow me to learn the night sky and still hopefully take some great images.