Cycling and Stuff

I had some trouble with the Orion when I tried to use the computer.  The azimuth wouldn't change when I slewed the tube.  I was pretty sure that this wasn error on my part assembling the base, so I took the base apart and reassembled the azimuth sensing parts.  Sure enough, that was the problem.  Now when I tested, the azimuth and altitude both changed with moving the tube.  My test was inconclusive however, as I was confronted with a moon and a limited viewing of the sky (the driveway problem), so when I entered the pointer stars (Vega and Polaris) I was not centred on Polaris, in fact, I was pretty far off.  So, I need to do another clear night.

Sunday's ride from Covington to Greenville was pretty terrific.  Steve, Rob, Mike and Nick joined me for a mostly perfect day out on the bike.  The pace was good and I mostly kept up.  I was a little sore Monday and just spun an easy 14 miles.

Last night was the first clear night since the XT8I was delivered, so I went out to dial in the finder scope, making Polaris the first light.  Pretty nice night.  At around 8:30 it wasn't quite dark enough, but I found Albereo and the double cluster.  I stayed out for about 40 minutes.  Haven't tried the computer yet, but I studied up on it and should be able to try it soon.