After their village's block party, we returned to my son's north suburban patio and fired up the Nexstar 127SLT. Too few bright stars were visible to do a quick Sky Align so we just did a point-and-shoot on Jupiter which for once was in clear sky, maybe 35 degrees up to our South, even as cloud cover starting slowly moving in from the North-West.
Red dot finder on Jupiter, put in the new 8-24 zoom, and since tracking was not active (didn't align the scope) we used the
CRIKEY! It's a planet with visible color bands and clearly visible moons! Suffice it to say we were thrilled to enjoy even just an hour chasing the planet across the sky, needing to reposition the scope in the yard three times just to keep a clean view owing to a huge tree in his neighbor's yard three doors down. NATURALLY in the due South sky. Next time we're headed to his driveway instead or the park at the end of the block, hopefully also getting the scope Sky Aligned first...…….. assuming the weather gods once again cooperate even slightly.
That low in the sky a crisp & clear focus on Jupiter was not going to happen, especially since due South is also this little town they call Chicago, so the light pollution goes from bad to extreme. But the thrill of the view was not diminished in the least.
I am delighted to finally be able to report that the new telescope works, and works well. The zoom
