I went out this evening at dusk to fool with the ScopeTronix 40mm eyepiece. The Moon was waxing crescent about 4.4 days old. I went out at early dusk because it was due to set at 12:29 AM and was already into the west — about 40° above the horizon. I took some shots in different zoom and Barlow configurations just to see what I could come up with and even threw on the Moon filter towards the end for good measure.

I really like this eyepiece! It has a great FOV with the camera. I think the batteries in scope were dying though, as I could hear the focus motor straining and the slew controls became sluggish and unresponsive (Oh will I ever achieve perfect alignment?). So I don’t think it was tracking properly. I have the power supply so I guess next time I go out I’ll need to run an extension cord.

I should really remember to horizontally flip these BEFORE annotating them… anyway, here they are.

I’m going to call 050512_016 the “money shot” for the evening. 🙂

I combined two of the images above using Photoshop, to create this extra wide view.

click for larger

On a different note, I had the good sense tonight to think about what I was going to do BEFORE I went out. So instead of taking out the full kit of everything I own and fumbling in the dark with packaging and whatnot, I had it all prepared in a mini gear kit. I even got the idea to clip the mini Maglite on the visor of my baseball cap! Not only could I see what I was doing, I had both hands free and no mosquitos flying into my mouth.