An Average Amateur Astronomical First

A while back the primary mirror on the GRT got mighty dirty. Then Crumby espied that it was dirty. So Crumby took the mirror out of the GRT and gave it a bath. After that, once Crumby, had the GRT reassembled, Crumby had to collimate the GRT from scratch. The GRT is not easy to collimate from scratch.

Meantime, Crumby acquired a third 2" to 1.25" adapter for the GRT. This third one actually fits. There is no slop in it. A no slop adapter makes collimating easier or possible, whichever. Anyhow, the GRT was well-collimated.

This morning as Moon was fixing to set, Crumby sashayed forth to test out the well-collimated GRT. First stop, M31. Crumby still could not espy M110 even knowing its precise location. Too much light pollution for M110. Nor could Crumby espy M33. Same deal.

However, Crumby did espy the always reliable M77.

After that Crumby wandered around. Here’s a double star. There’s an open cluster. There’s Mars. There’s Venus.

Hold it. What’s that on Venus. Hark! For the first time ever, Crumby was barely able to espy the bosoms on Venus, an average amateur astronomical first.