The tripod arrived on 11/17/05 so I was able to install the wedge and get everything ready to do a polar alignment tonight. Everything went smoothly. The pointing was pretty impressive already but I will still do a drift align as soon as time permits. The APT wedge will make drift alinging pretty easy. I'm axious to do the drift align and then do a T-Point run and see how well that works. Once I'm done with that I'll be ready to start doing some PEP observations. Yipeee!

Over the last few days, I was able to put some finishing touches on the observatory. I have moved in a new desk and chair, installed some lighting, and hooked up XM Satellite Radio. The only thing that I am waiting on now is a heavy-duty tripod. The new tripod should be arriving either Thursday or Friday. Once the tripod/wedge installed and the telescope is mounted I'll be ready to polar align and do a T-Point run to improve pointing accuracy. Then it is off to calibrate the photometer and begin observations.

The site has been created as a journal of my backyard observatory.The primary objective of the observatory is photoelectric photometry (PEP) of variable stars. Its secondary objective is visual observing for fun. But, being located in Las Vegas, NV, deep sky observering is severely hampered by light pollution.