by Dave and Jennifer Skitt, Observatory Chairperson(s)

Figured I give everyone an update on a recent Keyholder (KH) refresher training session.  We had nine persons total, 6 KH’s and 3 KH’s in training.  Rafael Caruso received his key at the end of the night as he successfully completed his fourth session.  A few others are close to receiving their keys.

Jennifer and I showed how to set up the two EAA monitors and ran through mount startup and slewing.  We covered how to use ASICap for camera focus with the Baht mask and for bright objects like the Moon. The moon was visible as a spectacular tiny crescent.  We then showed how to use ASILive for deep sky objects.  Everyone had a chance to practice what was shown. 

As the night went on, Jacob Kosowski took to finding objects to image with ASILive.  In the process, he found the reason Tom Swords and I had star trails after re-running the TPoint model a few days before.  A setting to stack and align frames in the software had gotten turned off.  Have no clue how this happened but problem solved!

The pointing of the C-14 is very good with the TPoint model that we have so we’ll stick with it for the time being.  Tom and I will soon run a new TPoint model for the Hastings.

Sam Sherman was there and told me he was able to get the measurements he needed for his AP Calculus project by logging into the computer and using SkyX.  He was very appreciative for the help the club members provided.

Near the end of the night, I was able to show how to use the FOV indicator, Angle measurement and Image link features in SkyX to the few who were left fighting off the cooler temperatures.

It was a very rewarding session!

Addendum: the TPoint model has since been successfully completed for the Hastings mount.  Celestial objects can now be easily found in both primary telescopes.