Astig fix #1 then #2

 I yanked the newly automated cooling unit out as I suspected uneven cooling was killing the mirror shape.  It did not seem to fix... onto #2...

Seeing was pretty poor for star tests last couple times I was out.  I had the scope out last night really just to test some fixes for my astigmatism.  Not sure you saw my last email or CN post in reflectors.  
 


My photo from 20221006 or 08; showing bad astig
 
 


My photo from 20221016 -pointing nearly to zenith and mildly out of collimation

 
I went through some changes like these…
 
There is a threaded slot in the rocker on the left of the below image that holds the cell to the rockers.  On the right cell has a bolt hole with 'rubber gasket' that protects stress of the bolt on the treaded rockers on the left.  .  I noticed the screw heads that shouldered in gaskets in place were making contact to the metal and caused some stress marks!

 
 
 
Added a screw bumper to bolts, in between the cell and rockers:
 

 
Placement

 
 
Installed



Hopefully this helps, more testing pending!!

A bit of clear skies and discovery of astigmatism

 

Figures!!!  I got to have a nice string of clear and mostly steady skies only to discover that my mirrors are astigmatic.  Thanks to my good friend Mitch D, and some of the folks on Cloudy Nights - https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/842366-defocused-star-test-questions I discovered my scope is under performing.  I am hoping to understand more of this issue but for now I'm somewhat convinced that it is really stemming from running only 2 of 3 TEC Peltier coolers and or OVER cooling it, especially unevenly.   Until I can get a handle on it, it appears I'm not getting very clear images no matter the focus or seeing.

Previous seasons - https://astromaphilli14.blogspot.com/p/jupiter-all-mikes-active-years.html

Rest of this seasons’ albums will be placed here:

• 2022
• Imgur = https://imgur.com/a/jOHOVML
• Google Photos = https://photos.app.goo.gl/2cj5ZwHB9wRdBm8p8

 

First Mars of the 2022-2023 Apparation!

 I knew staying up until 3 or 4 am would be hard but I wanted to try as we had a nice high pressure settle over most of North Carolina.  I dragged the 8" on my wheeled-CGE to a spot where I could visually see what WinJupos said was a  great glimpse of Syrtis Major and I said WOW.  So I dragged my 14" on the wheeled-CEM120 halfway in the road at 3am to get my 1st photograph of the new season!  I was stoked with how it came out in mostly average conditions and not even at it's highest peak altitude!