The day was unseasonably warm and clear, so I thought that if the weather held, I might be able to get a few hours in with the 8" LX200. After setting up the telescope and doing a quick and dirty polar alignment, I was surprised to find that for the first time in my life, I'd hit precise alignment dead on, right out of the box! It was a great night of viewing, as the telescope tracked perfectly. I started imaging, moving between Mars to M42 and back, as I went through the trials of focusing the DSI Pro II. As I started to get near perfect focus, it became more and more difficult to keep the image sharp. Puzzled, I scratched my head and continued to work on the focus, slewing from bright to dim objects, back and forth, exposing Mars, slewing again, etc. Finally, I took a look at the corrector plate and saw a solid film of dew! I have a heated dew strip but the day had been so perfect that I had thought I would have no dew problems. WRONG! After only 90 minutes, I was done for the night. Above, you'll see a horrible photo of Mars, but it was the best I could get through the dew. There's always next time. That's how it goes here in the Pacific Northwest - you can wait two months for a clear night and then have it derailed very quickly if you get in a hurry or get careless - which is what I did tonight.
