Frustration

[LewisM]

Scope and mount out and set up. CHECK.

Perfect alignment and centred GOTOs. CHECK.

PERFECT focus with a MINUTE FWHM value. CHECK.

High level smoke or alto-stratus, thin enough to see through. CHECK and DOUBLE CHECK.

No idea what the high level stuff is, but it's absolutely RUINED what could have been a gorgeous night for astrophotography. I did 50 minutes worth, and will likely throw the WHOLE LOT out.

Just utterly frustrating here in QLD as usual. I am even tired of whinging about it now.:rofl:

[grantch]

Seemed to be a lot of smoke around tonight, fires on Bribie I think

[Kunama]

Hey Lewis, we had 100kph winds and light rain with complete cloud cover last night so I settled in with a couple of beers and watched episodes 4,5 and 6 of 'When we left Earth' in HD.

Although I throughly enjoyed the movie-fest, you can imagine the frustration when I looked outside and saw a pristine clear dark sky with every star looking at me and to get my scopes out I would have had to wake my dear wife. ( I learned a long time ago not to wake hibernating bears )

[LewisM]

Matt, I am making a road trip :)

[Shark Bait]

I can confirm this. Last night I took advantage of our first clear night in weeks and headed up to Mt Mee. I thought that the orange glow to the East was one of the Islands further out. By sunrise it was clear that the fire and smoke was from Bribie Island. Extra fire crews have been sent to Bribie this morning.

For visual observing, the conditions seemed good, even if it was a little windy. Maybe I was above the smoke. :shrug:

[LewisM]

Orion stayed relatively clear for a LONG time, but ALL subs came back with harsh red tones - obviously smoke. Most of the time I was out, Pleiades was totally invisible. Eta Carinae was washed out.

Here's Barnard 33 "Horse-head Nebula" - see if you can spot B33 :)) The Flame and the nebulosity around one star is visible.

For ghits and srins, I stacked all my photos... ended up with a nice image of Alnitak with a touch of flame :)

[grantch]

Isn't it interesting the difference a 100ks can make. I called the kids downstairs as Pleiades was clearly visible to the naked eye, so wanted to show them. They then looked through the binos to get an even better look.

Seems the smoke must have drifted more you way, though we could smell it really strong on the outskirts of the northern suburbs.

[Kunama]

That sounds like a good idea !

You won't regret it, its really dark here ..... I took this pic couple of nights ago, it is the view from my bedroom taken hand held using the D7000 through flyscreen. About 4 sec at 6400 F2.8.
Obvious camera shake aside, there is Pleiades, Jupiter + 3moon, Orion etc., M42

[FlashDrive]

Amazing Lewis ...had a clear night here in D'bay ..Jupiter / M42 / Pleiades .. all clearly seen from my front yard and verandah.

although ...lot of ' heat shimmer ' when viewing Jupiter ..but not to excessive to make it awful.

Had both Scopes out ...107 SharpStar and Meade 10" LightBridge.... using Denk' II Bino's with 2 x 19mm Pan's....just terrific viewing.

Hope it's better for you tonight.

Flash ..!!

[Shark Bait]

Hi Flash,

The smoke must have been heading North to the Sunny Coast, but the strong breeze at Mt Mee was blowing East towards the coast. :shrug:

Last night while at Mt Mee, I used the Astro-Tech eyepiece that I purchased from you. It's main role is for use in my Son's refractor but I wanted to give it a good run under dark skies.

It is not really suited to the Dob with a fair bit of coma around the outer edge of the FOV. I put an OIII filter on it to see how the wider field of view would go on nebula and it did a good job on Eta Carina. :thumbsup:

[LewisM]

At dusk, I could see the smoke on the horizon to the east, but the wind seemed to be blowing from the west, so was hoping it would go further away. The wind, of course with the adiabatic etc changes, changed direction and started being from the south (UNUSUAL for here), which brought it all over. By 2200, the sky was white to the naked eye, and you could smell it.

I went out for a look at 2300, but the sky was still white. Called it a night.

Today looks better, but who knows what this evening will bring.

[cybereye]

The prediction is for the smoke to return to Brisbane tonight - don't know about the Sunny Coast though...

[FlashDrive]

Gidday Stu ....Yesterday afternoon saw smoke from our kitchen window ....went outside to front verandah ... and what a ' mess ' the surrounding sky was.....full of brown and white smoke ..and thick as ..!!
Thought to myself ....nope ..no stars tonight..not with that lot in the sky....and bound to hang around....there was a ' BIG ' fire some where nearby.
Around 7.30 pm ... Mrs goes outside ..calls out ...stars everywhere ... WHAT ...I walked out ...sky was ' black ' as... and ...Jupiter was staring at me as bright as ever.

That'll do me .... spent probably the best part of 2 hours ' panning' the skies with both Scopes....had a great time.
Great to see the eyepiece is holding up well.

Flash ..!! :)