Star test after 17 years

9:00pm Saturday 17 Dec 2022 - some parts of the sky was clear and Jupiter and Mars was visible. The Moon only rises at about 3:00am. December has been a difficult month, it's the monsoon season and it's been raining with overcast everyday for the past month. 

Finally there is some break in the clouds and it's time to star test the telescope after being dormant for close to 17 years! 

Moved all the equipment out to the front on the house and hope to take aim at some brighter object to do so testing. Managed to set this all up in about 25 minutes, without 2 or 3 star alignment since the Meade Autostar handbox LCD screen is not working and not displaying anything at all. 

Managed to get a glimpse of Jupiter with a 30mm Plossl at 40x. Looks great, the image was crisp and clear, testament to Meade's great optics that still works after 37 years. 

First night testing the old Meade 826C 

Next was Mars, and used 15mm Celestron Luminous eyepiece at 80x, looks great. But the clouds rolled in again and visibility was reduced. 

I've been using the handbox to slew the telescope at different speeds. Glad to confirm that all other functions of the #497 still works very well. Can't wait to get the LCD screen fixed! 

Yes, I can still use my laptop computer to point and click to slew the scope but I didn't want to haul everything out at this time.

As for the new FlashFish 48,000mAh power bank, it's well worth the investment. After about 1 hour of slewing around, the status still at full bar. Not too bad. 

FlashFish power bank with 12V DC output

By then it was about 10:00pm and with no much else visible, I've decided to call it a night. 

Not too bad. Taking it one step at a time. 

More testing to come! Especially for the Meade Autostar 497 handbox and tracking system.

I hope to take photos with my DSLR camera attached in future outings.