Finally, on Wednesday night (1/4/2006) I was able to get my first observations (Rho Per) with the SSP-4 infrared photometer. It was a bunch of fun and I learned that the photometer needed a bit of adjustment in its offset.

Tonight, I was able to make another run on Rho Per with the SSP-4. The offset adjustment definitely made a difference. I hope to reduce the data tomorrow and see if it was a productive run.

I was also hoping to do a calibration run with my SSP-3 on an Orion red-blue pair of stars but cirrus drifted in before I could start. Grrrr. I need to get that calibration done so that I do some PEP V observations in between the IR observations.

One last thing...I am VERY happy with how everything in the observatory is working. The alignment is great and the trio of TheSky 6, TPoint, and Orchestrate works GREAT! The pointing accuracy is so good that I don't need to mount the finderscope and every object requires very little adjustment to put it in the center of the photometer. Needless to say, I'm quite happy with the performance of the observatory.

Now, if I can just get some clear nights.....