It was 2 weeks ago when my astronomical fears were finally realised. The creeping doubts had begun to set in some time before this. Little hints such as the mount not knowing where it's going when slewing and then pretending it did know, but somehow only finding black spaces in this immense universe. Fooling yourself by saying hmm, I must have entered something wrong but knowing deep inside that you have not. The next subtle hint was slewing to M81 in Ursa Major and the scope ended up facing down looking south through the garden. But still we do not accept reality. And then the final insult, after setting up on the first clear night for a month looking forward to a great night, let's go to Arcturus and halfway there a loud crunching of gears and everything goes dead and refuses to move at all. An autopsy the next day reveals that the gears have collapsed in to and somehow broken apart destroying every thing beneath the saddle in a last farewell and horrible mess beyond any hope of redemption.
So, a complete week of depression set in as the full horror of being mountless hits home. I have to admit though that the mount had seen better days, only being able to do 30 second exposures and even then still trailing even though fully polar aligned and as for autoguiding, ha ha. Of course, this situation could be looked at in 2 ways. Stay stagnant or move to better things? But how to fund it?? Well, after a short deliberation, a backer (and you know who you are, the best on the planet) comes in and makes it possible for me to now own that superb mount you see above. Quite possibly the best mount in it's price range ever made. So, pretty soon, I am hoping to replace most of my pictures with autoguided material, which should be a hell of a lot better. Watch this website for new stuff coming soon. Thanks for reading and all the best to you all...
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