RE: [APML] Finally a Clear Night

["Thomas W. Earle" <twade@bmi.net>]

Chris,

It's definitely nice to get a really good clear night for a change.
There's nothing like experiencing the terrain being slightly lit by
just the light of the Summer Milky Way.  I'm very lucky to have such
a dark site "nearby".

Upon further examination of the slide with a 16x loop, it appears to
be more of a polar alignment problem than a flexure or wind problem.
The stars are more round in the lower right, and tend to stretch
more towards the upper right corner.  I can't quite remember where
the star I used to guide the image was in relation to the FOV.
During guiding, I noticed an average of 1.2" in the declination
axis; however, at the time, I attributed it to the gusty wind.
Apparently, it was more due to mis-polar alignment than to the wind.
It's good to know since now I'm "fairly confident" I don't have any
flexure problems, except when I "tighten" a knob the wrong way.:-(
As an aside, I had much better polar alignment last night with
declination corrections averaging about 0.3"-0.6" with the STV.

Outside the sleepless nights and yearning for a clear sky during new
moon, this hobby sure is fun.  

Wade


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