Got home and got a call from Nicki, she got her check so things are OK as far as bills but she isn’t making enough money to really afford her lifestyle. She wants to become a “Closer” which I think will but her right back into the quota deal again. I just wish she would change her lifestyle, get a roommate or three, she doesn’t “trust” her friends enough to room with them, what kind of “friends” are they?

Brian and I got our telescopes set up around 7pm and by about 8pm we started our alignments. I tried to use Brian’s controller and it only gave me stars I couldn’t find for alignment. I did notice right after I aligned with my controller that the stars were streaking and found that the polar alignment was off a bit (after 30 minutes) and that the Tracking was for the Southern Hem. ??? Not sure how it got changed.

I then took 50 shots of M42, the Orion Nebula, at 30sec through the Vixen with the D200 and 2x converter. The focus was not as good as I had liked and I ended up just eye balling it after I tried twice to focus on Sirius. The focus was not as good as I had hoped, I need to figure out why I’m not focusing well. It may be the screen I’m using on the focuser.

I’ve just finished getting everything back in the house.

Orion Nebula – M42, Saturn, Horsehead Nebula, Mars, M41

Temp 54 degrees, cloud cover 10-clear, transparency 3, seeing 3-4, humidity 50-60