Extinguished the taste with fried ice cream for dessert. It was okay. They did a good job of super-freezing the ice cream before breading and frying, so it wan't soup.
Home after work, it was cold and windy and cloudy and did not look like I would be taking the telescope out. But it was still light. I watered the plants and played online for a while, Tivoed a little, dinner was spanikopita and milk, with ice cream for dessert.
9:30 looked outside, it was clear. Still cold and windy, so I put on a heavy coat and hat and took the new telescope outside. The computerized alignment was a complete failure, but I bypassed it and used the motor control to point the thing at Venus. It took some doing. Finally did it, and was shocked that there was no magnification. Zero. It was a 1:1 image. Exactly what I could see with my eyes. WTF?
Tried a more powerful eyepiece, and it helped a little, but now everything looks like a hula hoop. Pretty sure this means the scope needs to be "Collimated". But even with that, it still sucks. I'll do some more research. Something is obviously wrong, probably with the way I am using the thing. The other less powerful scope gave me significant magnification without trying.
Plans for tomorrow:
Work
???
