Solar Goodness and First Light with CG-5 ASGT

Yesterday turned out to be a really good day. I woke up and took immediate note of the swaying tree in the front yard and determined that it would probably be too windy to try for any solar imaging. As I got around, I logged online to see some amazing prominence shots on the GONG h-alpha solar monitor site. I decided to brave the wind, and I am glad that I did. Imaging yesterday gave me a stress-free day (no transit, no public outreach) to really experiment and play with the IC capture software that came with the DMK-21. As such I think I found a sweet spot on the gamma slider bar where the darker, contrasty details really pop out at you. I did some imaging, and active regions AR1515 and 1513 took the cake. I was amazed out how much detail I was able to get with the DMK and the single-stack Lunt 60tha.

After processing the above images, I became keenly aware that it was saturday evening and I was very bored, and very broke. I decided to give my  Celestron CG-5 ASGT mount a try. I didn't really have the energy for a full blown imaging session, and I believe the moon was at 91 percent illumination anyway. Honestly I just didn't have the energy to drag out all the apparatus necessary. I decided to make it a visual session only, that would give me time to figure out polar alignment. You see, I have read many a manual and tutorial, but have never actually done a polar alignment routine. I dragged the behemoth out side, set the correct leg to North, and began the procedure just as soon as I could see Polaris. Turns out, alignment was a snap with the polar scope. What I didn't like though, was that in order to get the optics perfectly aligned, I had to fudge a little from the index marks. I will look into this more, I was kinda flying by the seat of my pants. After everything was aligned, I went to work. One thing that I will say is that it sure was different to align a GEM mount than the alt-az. I like being able to choose which stars I align to, my choice this time of year being Vega and Spica. The mount forced me to choose between western stars, then I could add eastern calibration stars. Not to bad, just different. I chose Spica and Alkaid, then added Vega as a calibration star and I was off to the races. First target: Albiero. Next target: M57. All of my gotos were off, but I attribute this to a.) index mark change in home position during initial startup (error due to my inexperience) and b.) pitiful power cord and partially charged battery. I did have a runaway goto indicative of a low voltage problem, but as mentioned above, the power cord is the weak link here and I have observed about 5 sessions on my power tank, so I know it has to be about done. I mean, the gotos were not that bad off, just usually slightly out of the FOV on the top of the eyepiece.

Other impressions? This mount seems rock solid. Some old salts will probably laugh at that statement, as one of the chief complaints of the mount is that it isn't very solid. My experience coming from the NexStar 8SE with it's overworked mount and  1.50" skinny tripod legs. The ASGT with the 2" tripod legs makes a huge difference. Vibrations dampened quickly, and I was actually able to focus manually with out using four-letter words and waiting on the vibrations to settle down. If this mount seems rock solid, I cannot wait to see what the Orion Atlas is like. 

To sum up, I was very pleased with the first performance of this mount. Tracking seemed dead-on, nothing appeared to travel in the eyepiece (true test will be photography). Setup is a bit more involved, but really only slightly so. My problems with gotos are probably user error or power deficiency. I can live with that.