[Chaos-l] The New Scope Arrives... (and now the clouds...)

[Matt Lochansky]

So my telescope _finally_ arrived Tuesday evening, just as I was
getting home from work!  I got the Orion Skyquest XT10i - previous to
this I hadn't used a telescope bigger than 90mm - this is 254mm!
After putting the kids to bed, I broke into it and had it fully
assembled by about 10pm.  The scope did need some collimation - it
wasn't even close out of the box.  I tried briefly Tuesday night, but
never having done it before, wasn't too successful.  I tried again
last night and got it spot on (at least from my knowledge of the
process) in less than 30 minutes.  Seeing was really bad though, so I
wasn't able to star test...

The base wasn't perfectly level initially either, so I haven't been
able to test the computer.  But even after levelling everything a
second time, I was stuck at "warp" ~2.0 (a measure of alignment...
manual recommends <0.5) - which wasn't able to get even close to an
object like Saturn - nevermind within the field of view of a 10mm
eyepiece.  I rechecked level again and readjusted the vertical stop -
next time I get out I hope that fixes it.

I only had a little while of observing time both evenings...  One
thing that really impressed me was the amount of "earthshine" I was
able to see on the moon Tuesday night (which even 4 days past new moon
was too bright for the 10" scope!).  Using the big scope is going to
take some practice...

I think my biggest frustration has been aiming the scope.  I always
aim too high and even left/right aiming is difficult.  I'm used to a
considerably smaller finderscope and a considerably smaller tube.
Even hitting bright stars could take me a minute or two to find and
require me to lay on the ground looking up the tube to aim it in the
right vicinity... Any tips on that?  The difficulty aiming will take
some practice as starhopping is completely different than before,
especially with the bigger finder.

The weather forecast doesn't look great over the next 5 days, so the
other priorities in my life may get some attention again!  Now I'm
really looking forward to getting out and observing with others...

-Matt