We've had some nice clear nights lately, and I took the LX200 out on Friday night for a good few hours of observing. The seeing conditions, however, have been pretty ordinary, so deep sky objects have looked so-so. Star clusters, some of the brighter planetary nebula and the planets have appeared fine, though.
My pointer laser turned up in the mail yesterday from Hong Kong. It's exactly the same as the Orion unit, just without the logo enameled onto it. I tried it out last night and this morning and beam is bright enough for my 4 year old to make out against the night sky (who was very excited about it, by the way!). It will be just fine for pointing out objects to other folks and I may get dad to make me a bracket to mount it to the LX200.
This weekend I am going camping to the local astronomical society's country observing site. Spending two nights out there with a friend who has a popup trailer. A mate of his is bringing his two scopes as well (an ETX125 and an XT8i) so it should be good fun. We'll also do some hiking, boating during the day. Currently the forecast is for clear skies on both nights, with Friday night temperatures being in the high 30s F. Maybe we'll get some good seeing conditions... I'll log a report when I'm back.
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