Walter's LogBook
	Thu/Fri, December 28/29, 2000

I imaged from the Old MacDonald farm again tonight with the same setup as on Dec 25th (see pictures below). Temperature tonight was a balmy -13C, much warmer than the Xmas session!

Polar aligning at 6pm, Polaris is close to lower culmination which makes looking through the finderscope quite a challenge. The LX200 uses Diphda (star 8) if you align around 6pm -- its southerly declination makes for speedy polar alignment.

Some Clapp Trapp sections helped to block wind. The car serves as equipment storage facility and work desk for star charts.

The Clapp Trapp sections also helped to keep things a little darker. Polaris is just visible over the roof of the house as seen from the scope's location.

Here is the view looking out from the kitchen window. The bottom of the window opening is only a metre or so off the ground, so it is very convenient for reaching in to operate the computer from outside (e.g. during focusing). Since I'm observing from the kitchen, my CCD equipment now has everything including the kitchen sink (just off camera to the left in this picture)!

I stuff some towels into the bottom of the window and simply close the window tight on top of them. This allows the cables to pass through while keeping the warm air in the house. To operate the computer, I open the window briefly. I may adapt my camera change-bag to further refine this fenestrational interface. While focusing, I leave the computer in continous imaging mode, close the window and watch the FWHM numbers from outside while tweaking the focus knob on the telescope. (Note: focusing through a window can be a bit of a pane.)

After kicking off the night with some visual variable star observing, I imaged IC432, NGC 2403, and M97. The tracking on M97 was abysmal -- the scope must have been nudged out of alignment -- so I only got half the exposure I wanted. The focus on my NGC 2403 image leaves a little to be desired, and IC432 is not even worth mentioning!

After finishing the M97 exposure at 05:00 I was about to switch over to variable star observing to finish off the night, but at 05:15 it clouded over completely!

NGC 2403	70 minutes (70 x 60s)
NGC 2403 in Camelopardalis (10" f/6.3 LX200)

M 97	24½ minutes (49 x 30s)
The Owl Nebula, M97 in Ursa Major (10" f/6.3 LX200)