An evening with the 'new' Society C8

This is the 'new' Cotswold AS C8 - kindly donated to the Society.

I had it out on 25th June - it was a clear night, but so near the solstice the sky was quite bright. I mainly wanted to try to collimate the scope so went out as dusk commenced. Venus was bright, setting in the west.

Collimation of a Schmidt Cassegrain is done by three adjusting screws at the front of the scope that tilt the secondary which is mounted in the middle of the corrector. With a medium power eyepiece the airy disk was easy to see, but adjusting the screws needs a bit of patience and persistence. I was getting close, but probably need to spend a while longer, but it was acceptable.

So quite respectable views of Venus and Saturn with Titan nearby. I then went onto Lyra to collimate on Vega a bit more, and then viewed Epsilon Lyrae - the double double.

I was not sure if I would be able to locate it with the still bright sky (full Moon tonight too), but I thought I would try for the Ring Nebula, M57 - actually it was quite easy to locate and see, but there are better views to be had.

To round things off, a stop over at Albireo, one of my favourite doubles, with a tremendous colour contrast between the bright blue and yellow stars.

So a big asset for the Society... gratefully received.