At about 01:45 UT on 19 Nov 2000 I had a 79 degree elevation pass of Mir. I decided it was a good chance to try for the second time to track it in my 8" telescope. Skymap showed the maximum elevation to occur at an azimuth of 36 degrees. That means that the polar axis would need to be set to (90-79) = 11 degrees elevation and an azimuth of 36 + 180 = 216 degrees. Running that through skymap showed the pointing point just south of Venus. Setting up the telescope was reasonable easy and more accurate than my first attempt, when I just pointed in the general direction of the new "polar" point. Checking the path again to find a good starting point, I looked up and saw Mir near max elevation. I acquired it in the finder scope then moved to the main eyepiece. Just a glimpse. Resetting Mir in the finder I then was able to follow for longer periods with minimal adjustment in declination. Mir appeared at an extended object so I twice verified the focus. Still extended with possible linear extensions. Magnification was 50x using a 40 mm eyepiece. Analysis: A key to tracking it by hand using an equatorial mount such as my Celestron 8" is accurately setting up the polar axis so that tracking in RA only is easy with minimal adjustments in declination. I took more time doing that this time and it was worth the effort. Given the ability to now track it with some degree of certainty, I am now confident that I can move on to imaging Mir. I recently saw photos taken by someone using similar equipment to mine and I was impressed. The photos do not get to the quality of Ron Dantowitz but his equipment is very sophisticated compared to mine. Ron Lee ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Nov 19 2000 - 09:35:51 PST