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Tuesday: Another sunny morning but cloud is expected later. Light winds today from NW but feels much colder.
Still no response to my emails, from either online dealer, concerning my Herschel wedge and binoviewer.
9.30: Setup on the Sun and set the drives going. 35F/35F. In/out. AWR/C-du-C has reversed the Dec drive direction overnight again. This is a daily occurrence now. I have to set it to Neg every morning.
Still no response to my emails, from either online dealer, concerning my Herschel wedge and binoviewer.
9.30: Setup on the Sun and set the drives going. 35F/35F. In/out. AWR/C-du-C has reversed the Dec drive direction overnight again. This is a daily occurrence now. I have to set it to Neg every morning.
Nothing visible on the disk. Proms at 5.00, 8.00 and 10.00. The 8.00 is the most interesting with two arches leaning towards each other. The 5.00 is a jet spreading out like a tree higher up. The 10.00 a hazy hump.
Yet again, I am struggling with the PST etalon's ring-shaped, sweet spot. The proms literally come and go with a small movement of the Sun's disk in the field of view. As does the surface texture. Rotating the tuning ring "switches" the proms on and off over a small movement.
10.30: 36F/40F. Thin cloud going over from the NW. Gong H-a shows the same proms but rotated clockwise by a couple of hours. Or ten minutes, if you prefer. As usual, I am having to stand on a beer crate to reach the eyepieces.
The sun is already coming and going behind thin, high cloud. Trying the 15mm for 80x but fighting with a plate of dimming cloud now. Sun still fits in the field of view with a small annulus.
11.00: Cloud increasing with few clear views. Blue sky turning to cloud in SE.
11.20: I'm wasting my time now. The cloud is forming downwind of me over the sun. Meanwhile the sky overhead get cloudier all the time.
Spent some time making a simple tension screw and bracket for adjusting the engagement of the RA worm. Then spent more time loosening it off because it made the stepper motor stall! There was no need for anything more exotic because it only rarely needs adjusting.
I had to re-balance the telescopes on the mounting after having removed the dewshield on the 7". Slews are much better now. It pays to release the worm from its wheel completely before you can trust the mounting's balance. Just slackening off the clutches isn't good enough in my case. The complexity of two large unstruments on the same mounting needs care. I have reached the limit of the four counterweights on the Declination shaft. Adding quite small weights to compensate for the offset of the 6" has had a surprising effect.
I have just received an email with the tracking number for the Herschel prism after 6 days and several emails. It's at the local delivery office so I'll see it tomorrow by the look of it.
Yet again, I am struggling with the PST etalon's ring-shaped, sweet spot. The proms literally come and go with a small movement of the Sun's disk in the field of view. As does the surface texture. Rotating the tuning ring "switches" the proms on and off over a small movement.
10.30: 36F/40F. Thin cloud going over from the NW. Gong H-a shows the same proms but rotated clockwise by a couple of hours. Or ten minutes, if you prefer. As usual, I am having to stand on a beer crate to reach the eyepieces.
The sun is already coming and going behind thin, high cloud. Trying the 15mm for 80x but fighting with a plate of dimming cloud now. Sun still fits in the field of view with a small annulus.
11.00: Cloud increasing with few clear views. Blue sky turning to cloud in SE.11.20: I'm wasting my time now. The cloud is forming downwind of me over the sun. Meanwhile the sky overhead get cloudier all the time.
Spent some time making a simple tension screw and bracket for adjusting the engagement of the RA worm. Then spent more time loosening it off because it made the stepper motor stall! There was no need for anything more exotic because it only rarely needs adjusting.
I had to re-balance the telescopes on the mounting after having removed the dewshield on the 7". Slews are much better now. It pays to release the worm from its wheel completely before you can trust the mounting's balance. Just slackening off the clutches isn't good enough in my case. The complexity of two large unstruments on the same mounting needs care. I have reached the limit of the four counterweights on the Declination shaft. Adding quite small weights to compensate for the offset of the 6" has had a surprising effect.
I have just received an email with the tracking number for the Herschel prism after 6 days and several emails. It's at the local delivery office so I'll see it tomorrow by the look of it.
Click on any image for an enlargement.
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