From: Collin Smith [mailto:CollinofAlabama@cox.net]
Sent: Saturday, October 07, 2006 5:55 PM
Subject: Friday night, September the 29th Observation Report

I arrived late, as I’d said I would. But, I arrived even later than I thought, around 10:15. Curt Pfarr and Pierre, his son, were in attendance, as was Tom Heisey. The moon was large at First Quarter. I set up my new little Astronomy Technologies 80ED scope and got started.
First, a simple star test. Looked okay. But I immediately noticed a problem with my drive, it was tracking WAY too fast. It simply didn’t track at the sidereal rate, but about 2.5 to 3 times faster. No buttons could be pushed to make it slow down and I reset it, power-wise, repeatedly. This was disappointing.
Curt had Uranus in his 5” Meade achromat -- a nice round aquamarine orb appropriately in Aquarius. He later framed the Pleades in a 40mm Meade ocular -- nice.
I had a good map of Neptune from my August Sky and Telescope, so I went after that. Boy, was that frustrating. The moon was low and bright and the general southerly skyglow one gets at the Gott, due to its northerly locale relative to Lubbock, made the skies a murky mess. I tried and tried but couldn’t tell if I was looking at Neptune or just some stars. This is something that will require more patience, a darker sky, and maybe my 6” dob.
When I arrived, Curt and Pierre were tired and ready to leave. Tom, who’d hurt his back putting his large SCT in his car, was pretty much taking it easy in a folded down chair with binoculars. Curt began to tear down his Meade refractor.
Around this time, Tom English showed up. I moved over to the moon and caught that great gash Vallis Alpes on its surface, to say nothing of the many craters, mountains and maria.
Soon, however, Curt and Pierre had had enough and called it quits. Not before Pierre graciously dispensed extra cans of Ginger Ale, however.
After my unpleasant experience with the elusive, murky God of the Seas, I was wondering whether or not to try for Uranus, but decided to use the color map my friend, Neetu Arora, printed for me on Uranus’ position. Within a few moments, Uranus was in the eyepiece. I found it with my Meade 26mm 5000 Plossl, but I went ahead and zoomed up the power with a TeleVue 8mm Plossl. Amazingly, at 68.75 power, the nearby 3.7 magnitude Lambda Aquarii was still in the field of view of the eyepiece. This was my first time to find Uranus myself and put it in the eyepiece of my own scope. William Herschel smiled on me. Uranus is the Latin form of the Greek Ourania and Sanskrit Varuna, tying together our Indo-European English and Hindi. Thanks for the map, Neetu!
Heisey’d had enough by then, too. We talked a moment and he was homeward bound. Tom and I stayed for quite a while. I played and played with my drive to no avail. It simply tracks too fast. Oh well, hopefully Orion will send me a good replacement. English and I stayed and talked a lot but didn’t look at a lot more stuff. I put M31/32/110 into the eyepiece, of course, but outside of the great Andromeda Galaxy, we spent more time talking than looking. We were getting cold so we called it a night.
Clear skies,
CDS 

-----Original Message-----
From: Collin Smith [mailto:collinofalabama@cox.net]
Sent: Friday, September 29, 2006 6:25 PM
Subject: tonight
Folks,
I'm still at work, so I will be late getting out to the Gott, probably around 10 PM. It won't get real dark till after midnight when the moon sets, but feel free to get there whenever you like.
Also, I've been informed there may be some Tech Astronomy students there. Usually they set up due east of the Observatory, and we tend to observe on the southwestern portion of the site. But be careful, please.
Hope to see you there tonight,
CDS

-----Original Message-----

From: Collin Smith [mailto:collinofalabama@cox.net]
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2006 11:07 AM
Subject: Friday night up North
Folks,
I'm heading to the Gott Observatory this Friday to do some star gazing. Feel free to call me, to coordinate things. The forecast looks pretty good, and the moon, which will be at First Quarter, will make a good target till it sets at midnight. Uranus, Neptune and the largest asteroid, Ceres, will make good targets so let's see them! I'll be trying out my new AstroTech 80ED. North, to dark skies! Remember it's always colder in the country and dress appropriately.
Hope to see you there,
CDS