Walter's LogBook
	Fri/Sat March 31/April 1, 2000

Part 1: Thu/Fri March 30/31

Despite a weather forecast for Thu/Fri night (last night) of variable clouds it turned out to be clear all night! I went to bed at 8pm and got up at 2am. Setting up the scope, I did a couple hours of variable star observing until moonrise at around a quarter after four. The forecast for Friday night was now for clear skies so I left the scope set up in the backyard.

Part 2: Fri/Sat March/April 31/1

With the scope still set up from last night, I refined the polar alignment for imaging and had it perfect after only three iterations! My weapon of choice tonight was the one-shot colour camera. I set up the computer in the garage (it is much warmer that way!) and ran cables to the scope outside.

My focus was down to 1.8 by 1.6 pixels -- excellent! I imaged M82 and found the scope tracked 101/110 30 second shots perfectly! Wow, love those high declination areas! Next, I imaged M106 and tracked 87/104 shots.

Next I went to M3. I had it almost perfectly centered and ready to go when I decided to give one final tweak to the centering. Going out to the scope I inadvertantly stepped on the camera cable, giving the scope a good yank. It took some fiddling around to get M3 back, but I carried on. There was just one problem: all the shots were trailing in dec! As it turns out, the yank I gave the scope ruined the alignment and I had to re-align it! Oh well, at least I hadn't broken anything! By the time I had the scope aligned (about 3:30am), cloud moved in and ended the session.

The low temperature for the night was +2C (decidedly warmer in the garage!). My computer's motherboard comes with temperature monitors for CPU and board. Here is the temperature data:

The sky was rather bright all night (even for Oshawa). Coma Berenices was at the edge of naked eye visibility. It's nice how the CCD can cut through the crap!

M 82	50 minutes (100 x 30s)
M 82 (10" f/6.3 LX200).

M 106	43½ minutes (87 x 30s)
106 (10" f/6.3 LX200).