Goodbye Summer

My three months without a post have largely been due to the near constant presence of @KarltheFog here in the Bay Area, a particularly summertime phenomenon.  I’m entering into a new season in my hobby as well, switching from the fork mount that came with my C8, to a German Equitorial Mount.  I’d been looking for a budget GEM for a few months when my dad mentioned he had an old but unused Meade LXD-75 laying around.  Thanks Dad!

Pics of the mount and handset mod in a later post.  The GEM is lighter, easier to set-up and take-down, has a decent payload capacity, and can be used with other scopes like my AT66ED f/6.   What really convinced me to ditch the fork was trying to piggyback the AT-66 on the C8.  It’s light, but not that light.   With the Autostar hand controller the new mount is also a “goto,” meaning I select “North American Nebula” and it goes there.  I feel a little unclean, but I knew the day would come.  Anybody want a C8 fork w/o the OTA?  Check the Cloudy Nights Classifieds soon…

Anyway, here’s the first pic off the new mount.  400mm, 3 minute exposures, 10 or so subs, ISO 1600, Meade filter.  Got a little coma on the left.  Maybe my filter was askew?