old cheap equatorial mount

        I got back home and went for my evening walk. It was too windy to listen to a lecture but I think I want to pause on the lectures until I learn as much as my little brain can absorb of the Spectra: the absorption and emission lines that the last two lectures talked about.

        Went outside to setup an old cheap equatorial mount I had lying around. I must have done something wrong somewhere and I think it was the polar alignment. I haven’t done this since college but that was on a more professional mount. This one’s RA and Dec setting circles are so small that it was hard for me to read. Anyways I was able to follow Jupiter using the fine adjustment cables, but not very well. I’ll have to go online later to find some documentation and see what I’m doing wrong. The seeing wasn’t very good with all the particulates suspended high in the air from the fires in northern California scattering light. It made the sky appear like a quarter Moon was out and I didn’t need a flashlight to navigate around. So I got out the binoculars and sat back trying to name some of the constellations I know. There was Hercules high overhead, Corona Borealis, Bootes, and several others. The asterism “Summer Triangle” with Vega (in Lyra), Deneb (in Cygnus), and Altair (in Aquila), was making its way up in the eastern sky. I used Kstars on the laptop to help me find some of the other constellations I’m not that familiar with. All in all it was a productive night and it feels good to get outside and try to recall the names of the constellations and stars.