From: "Jerry B. Hillman" 
To: 
Reply-To: "Jerry B. Hillman" 


Hi all,
I missed a couple of perfect nights for star testing my 16.5" because
my star test rig didn't work. Horizontal and verticle adjustments were to
crude. Basically, At high power I couldn't find Polaris. I spent this
weeking building my tube and mount. But, by dark, the entire northern sky
was cloudy. I did get a look at Jupiter however. Seeing was about a 3. Thin
clouds overhead, turbulent atmosphere, etc. With my 32mm eyepiece (59x)
Jupiter was reasonably sharp. Banding and polar caps clearly visible, the
moons were perfect points of light.  With my 20mm (95x) I got a larger
version of the same thing. However, the moons appeared to be tiny little
disks, rather than just points of light.  With my 9.7mm (195x), the
problems with the atmosphere became more evident.  Fuzzier image. I didn't
even try the 3.6mm (495x) eyepiece. Hopefully tonight will be clear, but I
am not counting on it. I keep you posted. Clear skies, Jerry

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-4