[sac-forum] Agua Caliente - observations

As indicated in an earlier e-mail this morning, last night Steve and I tried 
out a new spot, under consideration as a replacement for FlatIron.  I would 
like to share some of my observations in the 8" SCT from the site.

We spent our observing time in Lacerta, which was high in the northwestern sky 
and was pretty dark.  Naturally open clusters ruled but we did a couple of 
galaxies.

NGC7209, at 60X is a nice open cluster with about 20 stars from 9th to 12th 
mag, scattered about in groupings of 5-7 each along with 10 fainter stars.

NGC7265 is a 12th mag E-S0 galaxy - in a 24mm it is round, very faint and 
pretty small; but only after a minute of averted vision and good seeing.  Also 
used Steve's 11" to verify position!

IC1434 at about 120X - for an IC cluster this is a very nice grouping of stars 
with 5 branches (more like 4 /12 in the 8") with one side being pretty 
starless, 2 longest branches radiate northward; about 50 stars from 9th to 12th 
mag along with a number of fainter ones.

The above and several observations went well until some time between 9:30 and 
10:00 where upon I encountered a PROBLEM!  After our break I went to the 
telescope, picked up the hand controller and punched in something for the 
telescope to GoTo . . . and . . . and . . . and NOTHING HAPPENED!  The LED 
screen didn't even show the number entered.  Pressing any, and all, keys on the 
key pad resulted in NOTHING!  Eventually the ESC key entered a 4.  Yes, the ESC 
key entered 4's on the screen. 
 
Tried POF/PON several times and couldn't get to any usable screen.  Pressing 
ESC resulted in 4's on the screen. 
 
This morning I put the telescope together in the house and meme chose!  A quick 
call to Orion to see if they had seen problem.  No they hadn't and their 
response was, "We'll send you a new one, but try to get the defective one back 
to us before end of this week." 
 
I sent the defective one back 2 hours later, checked FED/EX and the new one is 
expected to be delivered Saturday.  The defective one is expected to be 
delivered to them Monday. 
 
Geaux Orion! 
aj

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