February Mangrove Mountain

[Shano592]

Hi All.

Well, it looks like the weather is going to work against any plans to get to Bretti. Hi 30's during the day, then clouds, potential for rain and thunderstorms. A long way to go to sit in my tent...

So with that in mind, is anyone interested in attending the Pony Club either this Thursday, Friday or Saturday? Weather seems to be ok for all nights, though very high humidity (up to 98% on Thursday and Saturday nights).

Very slow 7timer link: http://www.7timer.info/index.php?product=civil&lon=151.17923662109376&lat=-33.31240821847422&lang=en&tzshift=0

[Shano592]

I think I'm going to set my calendar for Friday night.

If anyone else is interested, I will probably arrive between 6:30 and 7pm. It won't be dark until after 8pm.

[nobby2]

Hi Shane
Yes, according to CFN there is a short window for tonight (thursday). 20:00hrs = 0 percent, 23:00 = 3 percent, then looks like cloud coming in quickly around midnight probably 20 % then 58% by 2:00.
7 timer less optimistic with high humidity, hazy.
Today at Norah Head you cant see the horizon for Haze.

So still a bit Iffy for me.

[Shano592]

Hi Neil,

Yeah, I saw that, and Friday looks to be the better of the 3 nights.

Haze is bad in Tuggerah too right now, but I'm only looking maybe 1km away. This morning, I couldn't see the Toukley bridge from San Remo, when normally I can see well past The Entrance.

Unless it is wildly bad tomorrow, I will still set myself to go up tomorrow evening. I need to get out!

[glend]

Some if that haze maybe coming from the fire near Singleton. RFS still shows it as out of control. The sky has a yellow tinge up here.

[Shano592]

I think almost all of it is from the fires up there. There were 4 separate fires in a the space of a few km, but the bigger one is still out of control as at 10am. Over 8000 hectares burnt, so far.

Hopefully, the South-Easterly that is due later this morning, will start to clear the skies for us.

[Shano592]

OK, so I will be leaving here at about 6-ish.

If anyone wishes to attend, I will see you there.

[Shano592]

Well, that was a bust. I got to the Pony Club, opened the gates, and picked a spot that shielded me from the street light down the hill.

I set up the mount to true north/south (to within a degree or so, I reckon), and fitted the wedge, then leveled everything in 3 directions.

Then the clouds came. Thick. And fast.

I waited for about an hour to see if it was just a small front, but they kept coming, and there were so many more off towards the coast.

So I called it before I even started properly.

Might try again tomorrow.

[Allan_L]

cfn seems to indicate it might be OK tonight.

[Allan_L]

Forecast still looks good.
anyone else interested.???
I am considering it.

[Shano592]

Yes! Definitely keen to try again.

[alex-borek]

I'm keen! Is anyone going to be up there?

[Allan_L]

Yes. Alex.
Shane should be there by 7.
I will be there closer to sunset. Another may arrive a little later.

I expect we will have packed up by 12 midnight.

[alex-borek]

Lovely, see you there!

[astropolak]

Hey, this was good!!!

As they say a mission accomplished. Cloudy and patchy at first to latter open up for a nice clear skies.

The location is getting rather light polluted but it was nice to dust off the scope and ALL eyepieces. I must have tried every single eyepiece in my arsenal, collection I am quote found of. Could not wait for Jupiter to raise high enough and closed gates at ~1:30.

Thanks to everyone in attendance to make this a fun event.
Hope to see you soon.

[alex-borek]

Great time with you all!

A few considerations:
1) I have done a quick search on that flashing UFO/Tiangong-1 and it appears to be some tumbling space junk (probably rocket boosters or somewhat). Very rare sight.
2) Just finished a quick stacking and post processing of the Carina Nebula, no reducing though. You can see the dithering pattern since the dark current noise is a fixed pattern, so hopefully with some decent darks it will be WAY better.

[alex-borek]

Captured with Canon 1200d unmodified (9x5m frames) on a SW ED80 plus a HoTech SCA flattener (which isn't going well) mounted on a Neq6 without any mods and heaps of backlash guided using a SW 80 achro + zwo asi120mm (guiding error around 0.6", seeing was an awful 3").

While I can't upload the img... https://78.media.tumblr.com/cae1dcdf5838d846d181bc02166a70aa/tumblr_p4cfcx8lgT1qdrmwko1_1280.jpg

[Allan_L]

Yes, it was good to get up to the Pony Club again.
Sky was pretty good looking to the eye, but was a little disappointing at times (through the scope) as some thin clouds wandered across the field.

Nice to meet Alex. Nice photo Alex. Imaging under difficulty there.

Also nice to meet Lucas (is that right). A newcomer, with brand new scope bought that day from Bintel. (I'd forgotten how much I dislike observing with an EQ3). I was thinking later on, that balance problem - We didn't think to slide the scope back further in the ring clamps. (I'd obviously also forgotten how to use an EQ3). Hopefully you have sorted out a few things with a re-reading of the manual. I always found the second reading more rewarding after having a go at setup). Have you registered on IIS yet?

Good to see Joe again. Glad you were able to make the trek.

Thanks for organising the event Shano. It has been hard to get people excited about local astronomy lately. I am guessing this weather has put a lot off for so long, it takes a bit to get people going again like before.

I am glad you were able to make it John (Fizics) after working all day at Jaycar. Always a pleasure

Thanks everyone

[Shano592]

Yes, It was definitely a good night, all said and done.

Joe and I hung around till just after 1:20. Jupiter was about 30 degrees up by then, but the smoke haze was still making it very yellowed.

Alex, great image! For the amount of cloud early on, you have made a great capture.

It was great to see John and Allan up there, especially after Allan's week away. I thought you would be grounded.

Lucas, if you haven't already done so, please do register, and we hope to see you up at the Pony Club again soon.

At the end of the night, there were some clouds to the far east and west, but the viewable sky was crisp, if not a little light polluted as Joe touched on.

[alex-borek]

As a matter of comparison, here is another go at this gracious dss.
This time using a CMOS ZWO ASI1600mm-c + FF.

10x180s RGB (ZWO new RGB)
22x180s H-alpha (ZWO H-alpha)
Cooled at -10
No darks, no bias, no flats, straight from Sydney's inner west suburbs.
Quickly processed using DSS (stacking and alignment) and PS (post-processing).
*FF spacing is a bit off so the stars are not perfect around the corners

https://78.media.tumblr.com/74d5d87be1f6bf4b6ef1fc981353c025/tumblr_p4oookaM3l1qdrmwko1_1280.jpg

*soon I'm releasing the full/reduced/high-res version of both CMOS and DSLR versions*

Can't wait to take the complete setup to meet some really dark skies!

[alex-borek]

Better res: https://www.astrobin.com/335174
*still not drizzled*

[Shano592]

That is really good, Alex.

Lovely and clear.