Halo observing

Last few months has been time when only few halos I have been able to notice (per one month). Due to daily work, I cannot observe the skies all-time. Yesterday (9th Oct 2008) I saw few nice common halos at Espoo. 22 ring, 22 upper tangent arc and circumzenithal arc were visible.

I store all my halo observations to Havainto.net -database. If images are available, I'll upload those there also. Halo observing is great fun, just remember to watch at the sky...

Autumn lightning

Late today evening it was nice again to see some natures beautiful lights. At coastal area of southern Finland, there is a rainshower passing by. Some lightning is currently visible behind the clouds. Unfortunately no direct lightning strikes are seen, since the thunderstorm is not very "active". No sounds were heard at my hometown Espoo.

One nice occasion was that, at the same time it started to rain harder, and the "Big Dipper" was visible through the clear cloud area. I will continue to follow situation for a while, at local FLC -lightning radars...

Accessory order ongoing

Another set of dew prevention stuff, plus double crosshair-EP for drift aligning. Waiting for Kendrick 1.25" strip and Antares 10mm to arrive beginnig at next week...

Partial solar eclipse

This time the observation I had to visually only. No possibilities to photograph it due to busy daily work, unfortunately. It still was a beatiful sight. Sky was partially cloudy. I observed it in southerh Finland (Espoo to be precise), around 12:40 local time (GMT +3h). Approximately 40% of the sun disk area was blocked by the moon.

These following pages contains solar images around the world:
Spaceweather.com
NASA solar eclipse page

Televue Everbrite diagonal, part2

I got new replacement mirror for Televue diagonal, I changed it myself. This is how the story goes... First thing is to get proper allen wrench. You need to use 1/16" wrench (a bit larger than 1.5mm wrench). Open all the four screws. Keep the mirror holder block facing down (mirror will not drop). Gently lift up the diagonal body and remove the gasket. Take a note of the gasket position.
Mirror lies now in the holder, scratches are easily seen. And there are lot of those... Remove mirror from the holder. Put it on soft cloth or a piece of lens paper (to avoid any other damage).

On backside of faulty mirror there is a "signature". This most propably refers to quality checking. Either the person performing quality control, did not actually check the mirror, or scratches have been made in the mirror installation phase. TV quality control -> alert, alert...

Based on "signatures", replacement mirror has been checked by two persons...

Mirror holder has two thin strips of soft foam inside, to press the mirror against diagonal body. I am bit worried about this material. How does it work after long time, ten years or more ? Is it still flexible enough to support the mirror ?

Install the replacement mirror on the holder. No scratches seen anymore (few dust particles are present, no affect to actual use).

Take a diagonal body, gasket and mirror holder. Install the gasket in same position as it was when disassembling. Thighten all the four screws.

Final checking of diagonal against bright light, mirror surface looks good.

Televue Everbrite diagonal, part1

After my recent accessory order arrived, Televue 1.25" Everbrite mirror diagonal was a faulty one :-( The mirror inside of was totally full of scratches. After contacting to dealer, it was decided that I receive a new replacement mirror for free, and change it myself.

I still want to believe that TV makes excellent quality products. Within this sample, the quality control checks were not working.

Accessory order ongoing

For preparing my C8 OTA to visual planet observing and other coming challenges, I am about to place order of:

Baader Ortho 9mm eyepiece
TeleVue 1.25" Everbrite diagonal
Kendrick 2006 -heater strip
2" barrel -> T adapter