Good seeing in Sydney tonight

[multiweb]

A clear night with no wind and stable atmosphere tonight. Will be out imaging for sure. I'm not a planetary guy but I was thinking of getting Mars as it's pretty high up and nearing opposition but there's that bloody dust storm so no real features to see. Worth it or stick to deepsky for tonight?

[glend]

If you have the necessary long focal length then Mars is worth a look, it's two weeks from Opposition but that happens right on the full Moon. If your imaging it then now could be a good time. DSOs there is a lot of choice rising in the East after dark, but if you have imaged all the usual suspects then maybe not. I look at Sky Safari and steer clear of things which i already have lots and lots of hours of data stored away. Maybe i am getting jaded, but I am looking at DSOs which are more challenging, fainter, etc.

[multiweb]

I might give Mars a miss tonight. It's not going anywhere for the next few weeks.

I don't mind imaging stuff again and again at different focal lengths or different lights. There's always room to improve and dig more fine details out of it. I don't understand "more challenging". I do this for fun on the side. Work and life have enough challenges as is. :lol:

[mental4astro]

If you are after an interesting composition, comet Panstarrs is 3° away from the Fighting Dragons for the next couple of nights.

[multiweb]

Sounds good but I don't think my field will cover that much and I'll be doing Ha too. Too much LP here to do color. I've been waiting for a good night to get the C11 out and test now I've stiffened the primary cell and hooked it to the dovetails. So I'll probably pick something bright in Ha at 3m FL and stick to it and see what happens. Maybe the core of M20. There's a couple of jets in there to be had.

[Wavytone]

"now I've stiffened the primary cell and hooked it to the dovetails"

Sounds painful :eyepop:

[Wavytone]

Alex which "comet Panstarrs" ? There are several between mag 14.8 and 21.

A comet at 14.8 is way below observable or photographable in the city.

[mental4astro]

Panstarrs C/2016-M1

Mag 9.2

[ChrisV]

Yes it was excellent seeing last night. First night out with my scope since early May, and PHD tracking was coming up with a ridiculously low RMS error for my mount.

[multiweb]

Got stuck with work at the last minute. Didn't make it. Had a peek outside though and it did look steady. :sadeyes:

[mental4astro]

Spotted the comet very easily last night from home (eastern suburbs Sydney). Faint, but unmistakable. Could only seevtje coma, not the tail. Should be awesome from a dark site with the busy Milky Way as the background. I'm going to the Blue Mountains this Saturday, and this sucker is a prime target for the night.

[multiweb]

Looks like a small window of opportunity possibly this saturday night with decent seeing. Moonset around 1:00am so not bad.

[Marke]

Yes saw that its been a mess lately

[multiweb]

Tell me about it. Going to move to Canberra :lol:
Still looking half decent for tonight.

[Marke]

I've been watching it all week only have the moon to contend with now lol

[Wavytone]

Someone photographed Encke’s gap in 2003 using a 14.5” reflector.

Technology has moved on since then and the right scope in perfect seeing could do it again...

[mental4astro]

My target IS the Moon tonight!

:cool: :2thumbs: :stargaze: :clap: :party:

Managed to set up early in anticipation. First glimpse at 200X was most promising half an hour ago. Best I've seen all week. Looks blooming good for tonight :)

[multiweb]

Looks like some exceptional conditions in Sydney and most of the east coast for tonight's forecast. Jetstream is at a record low so is surface wind. The moon is up but an excellent night for planetary or imaging something very bright.

[Djlpap]

Thanks! The moon has been extremely clear this week. Some of the brighter star clusters have been amazing too.

[Marke]

Lets hope but can I blame you if its not Marc :P

[multiweb]

*disclaimer: good job - no warranty.

[Ross G]

Thanks Marc!


Will try and get some Mars photos tonight.


Take care.
Ross.

[multiweb]

Good luck. :thumbsup: Might go have a look at the moon with the C11 do a bit of visual tonight too. Maybe check saturn and jupiter.

[Saturnine]

Have been monitoring tonights forecast conditions via CFN for a few days and does look very promising for some steady seeing. The Red Spot on Jupiter as it gets dark and a shadow transit of Io from 7:41pm EST. Mars and the Moon will be great to have a look at and / or image. Need to make some room on my laptop hard drive for tonight.
Maybe some bright double star hunting later, once the planets have gotten too low.

[multiweb]

Very steady tonight. The moon is hardly wobbling.

[mental4astro]

Yup! Very good night :thumbsup:

Managed a lunar sketch at 400X for the first time this year. VERY good night.

Alex

[Saturnine]

Seems like the local geography had won again, despite Marc and Alex saying they had steady conditions the skies down here were not steady. Has to be something to do with the air flow over the Illawarra Escarpment. Lucky to be 5 / 10, have about 25 Gb of video files that I took of Jupiter, Saturn Mars and the Moon and the images are shimmering around madly.
Haven't processed anything yet but hopefully will get some reasonable images. Glad some of you got good to excellent seeing conditions.

[Dennis]

Hi Marc

That is a wonderful Mars image, the detail looks very fine and natural.:thumbsup:

Cheers

Dennis

[mental4astro]

Jeff, seeing slowly improved during the night. I was using a scope that I'm currently star testing and this night was a great test. Cracker of a scope - I managed to see details around 500m in size on the Moon. Previously with the orange tube C8 I had I could manage just down to 1.5km. 500m is roughly 0.3" of arc. Damn near peed myself! :lol: :eyepop: :D

PS, I looked up the resolution limits for an 8" scope. What I quoted at 0.3" seems way too small! I came to this size by identifying some of the smaller craters that have a dimension given in Virtual Moon Atlas. I was then able to see much smaller craters beside these of known dimensions, and the shadows involved deduced their size, and hence came up with the 500m size. Simple trigonometry using the distance to the Moon as 384,400km, and I came up with 0.3".

[Marke]

Well I'm glad it was good for you guys because it was awful here ��

[Wavytone]

Well anywhere in Sydney beats stargazing where I am - on top of Huangshan in Anhui province, China.

The hotel is at 1570 metres with the nearby peaks at 1800m and in the clouds most of the time - which form faster than you can find your camera.

Although it’s a long way from a large city (by Chinese standards) the night sky is pretty woeful - and the usual planets barely scrape 45 degrees elevation crossing the meridian according to Sky Safari. Hence it’s quite clear astronomy is not a viable hobby in Chiba.

As it’s the moon festival weekend the hotel is also surrounded by campers who have lugged tents up here.

[mental4astro]

Mark, I've been in your boat too. A mate of mine living in Killata calls me saying seeing is a corker, I pull a scope out andx seeing is abysmal where I am in Maroubra :(

Been like this much of this year. Good seeing being very localized. This year moire so than in other years. Very warm winter days and then very cool evenings is one source of our grief, and couple it with local geography, and it plays havoc with seeing. I'm overjoyed to have jagged a couple of nights of good seeing. No idea when the next one will happen.

Only thing things to do is keep an eye on weather patterns and look for markers that show clear skies and good seeing, and to keep trying with the scope.

Oh, don't forget, the bigger the aperture the more susceptible it is to poor seeing. There's a lit to be said to keeping two scopes, one large and one small - conditions are not flash, the small scope is King. Conditions good, the big scope claims the night. I have a modest ED80 for this when the Big Cat cannot venture out for a kill.

Alex.

[mental4astro]

There is one other factor to seeing stability in a scope - optical quality of the instrument. Premis is a simple one - if all the photons are being put where they should go, then if seeing is not ideal then the image won't shimmer and blur as much, more "waft" like a flag in a gentle breeze. If the optical quality is not there, the image will waft more violently and there will be an intense shimmer in the image as the misaligned photons are thrown all over the place.

Alex.

[Dennis]

During my recent lunar imaging sessions, I noticed that at least 3 different components to seeing as viewed on the computer screen as I watched an AVI being recorded.

The main component was a whole-of-image wavefront, where it was as if waves of long wavelength and low amplitude were washing over the scene. Small craters would have defined edges and then soften but never smear.

Then there were bouts of localised high frequency disturbances that would destroy all the fine detail for several seconds at a time.

The 3rd less frequent component was as if a heat plume had passed over the scene and the whole scene was washed out, a bit like applying a Gaussian Filter set to 50 or 100 across the whole frame. I looked up and there was no obvious source to this, e.g. my body accidentally passing near the open end of the OTA, a low jet flying over our house, etc.

So, when combined, the effect was that at times the seeing could be estimated at maybe 7/10 but with the other effects adding to that, it was reduced to maybe 5/10.

Cheers

Dennis

[mental4astro]

Here's Friday night's effort, the curiously elongated Schiller and surrounds.

Alex.

[multiweb]

Bummer!... and you're not that far from me either.


Thanks Dennis. :thumbsup: I went to astrofest hoping to get some good shots of Mars and came back with a blurry disk because of the storm, tried from home and in 5 min got my first decent shot but it's getting small. :lol: Missed it by thaaat much.


Nice sketch. :thumbsup:

[Marke]

Think it must be pretty localised Marc dosent take much to throw it off. Lucky I've got a lot of good Mars images for the year but I want to push the c11 to see what it can do.

[multiweb]

Here's what I got around 20:30. https://vimeo.com/291329776

[Marke]

A lot better than I've had but I'm also working around f26 as well

[Dennis]

Interesting Marc, thanks for this video. Scrubbing through it with the Slider, I could occasionally see some fine detail in the smaller craters.

Cheers

Dennis

[multiweb]

Yes that's what I thought too. It was good enough to focus looking at the very small craters come and go. It's not the best seeing I've seen with the C11 but it was well above average. The wobbling seemed to be "large scale", quite large across the FOV, not really grainy so it didn't affect the fine features as much.

[Saturnine]

Interesting reading about the variations in seeing conditions from areas not that far apart, begs the question of how subjective our interpretations of the conditions are. Also Dennis' observations of low and high frequency waves of turbulence rolling across the field of view are worth further investigation on the affects to seeing. Will have to take more notice of what is happening in the eyepiece.
After the clouds cleared last night the seeing was similar to Friday nights , so set up the rig and captured some more videos and crudely processed them today. Still am in awe of Alex's sketching skills and images produced by the many on here.
Anyway , here are some of mine from Friday night, all taken with an N.G. 127 f 7.5 Triplet, HEQ5, 2.5 Powermate and ZWO290MC. Stacked and wavelets in Registax, best 10% of 2k or 3k frames.

[Saturnine]

And from last night, some similar views in an extra days illumination.

[Dennis]

Very nice captures Jeff, some lovely fine detail across the frame.:thumbsup:

I generally GoTo a Mag 2 or 3 star and inspect the out of focus diffraction patterns with the Damien Peach Pickering website:

http://www.damianpeach.com/pickering.htm

to establish a seeing estimate.

Cheers

Dennis

[Saturnine]

Thanks Dennis .
I'm sure I've seen Damien Peachs' Pickering Scale before as I have browsed his website and images a few times. Going by the scale, most times around here the seeing is between 4 & 6 and can only remember a few times when it got to 8 and that never seems to coincide with prime planet times, of course.
Resolving the small craterlets on the floor of Plato is always pleasing. Haven't found their measurements yet but I'm guessing about 3 to 4 kms diameter. Always a mind twister when being able to see something that small from 340,000 kms away in a modest scope and camera.
Anyway planet season is coming to a close so it's back to dso imaging and observing and there is always lunar of course, catching features under differing angles of illumination is fun.

Cheers

[multiweb]

Saturday forecast looks pretty sweet for Sydney on CFN. Might be clear with decent seeing. I'll be out to play. :party:

[ChrisV]

There's naught left in him (CFN) but lies and deceipt ...
Gollum

[Wavytone]

It’s all lies I tell ya, it will set us up then turn cloudy at sunset.:rofl:

A while back there was an evening at Alex’s place when the seeing was quite good - probably 8 - though transparency was not so good - and we were resolving features on the moon smaller than 1km - under 0.5 arcsec - in both the Russian maks. It had him scrambling for an atlas to figure out what we were looking at - the cobra head as I recall, and features within it. We’ve also seen the Encke division in Saturn’s A ring on one occasion in winter, and that IMHO was staggering as it’s more like 0.1 arcsec.

Now that I have a decent focuser on the Santel, a reducer and all the bits & bobs to connect camera I’ll have a go and see what can be done with it photographically.

[Wavytone]

Yeee Haar it’s finally looking good for tonight, what a change.:)

[LewisM]

Went for a morning walk under perfectly clear blue skies, foolishly started planning the target for the nearly new moon tonight.

Of course now there is cumulus everywhere at 1pm.

[Wavytone]

It’s overdeveloing, and there’s a thunderstorm at Kiama.
Would be nice if we have one over the mountains to clear the air.

[DeWynter]

Sorry, it's my fault, guys. I finally got proper power for my mount today so it's will be cloudy tonight. And I bet there will be clear skies tomorrow as it's Sunday and I've got family party... :)

[multiweb]

It's cleared now in liverpool and looking great for tonight. Little wind gusts still but CFN says it will die later on. Sunday is looking alright too. :stargaze:

Clear skies on a new moon. Am I dreaming?

[multiweb]

I was out star testing this evening and the sky was very steady. Has anyone been out looking up?

[Wavytone]

Looked good earlier but clouded over - very humid here thanks to a sea breeze. Now overcast, though it might clear again later when the westerly is able to push the sea air back off the coast.

[multiweb]

Yes I just packed up around 21:00. It was ok from sunset until now. But there's a lot of fast moving cold air coming from the SW. Probably mild with some rain tomorrow and next couple of days.

[Wavytone]

Looking good (Sunday evening). Last night wasn’t too bad either.

[multiweb]

Looks half decent tonight or am I desperate? :question:

[Wavytone]

Looking good overhead but there’s a big ugly bank of grey in the west, over the mountains

[multiweb]

Yeah I chickened out. There's a lot of instability on the satellite coming fast so the next forecast could be very different. It's changing too fast and the forecast is not reliable when it's like this. Don't want to get caught in the rain. Thursday/Friday look better once this front has passed maybe.

[AstralTraveller]

I'm desperate for photons. Scope outside cooling. I don't even much care about the seeing, so long as I see something. :)

[multiweb]

How did you go last night? Any luck? Did you squeeze some subs in?

[AstralTraveller]

Things went OK, though not brilliant. The cloud persisted longer than cfn predicted but I still had plenty of viewing time before beddies. Mars was underwhelming but the moon was nice. The image held together at 400x but I couldn't discern any more detail than at 311x. The best views were at 224x and 280x.



No subs, I don't image (and the neighbour's pool is too shallow :lol:).

[multiweb]

Yeah the weather is a little nuts for the next 36h. Better wait it settles a bit Thursday night or Friday, hopefully not too windy.

[multiweb]

Some serious westerlies coming our way. Friday looks worst.

[xelasnave]

Back up North so I hope I have not carried all my gear for no result...again.
Alex

[multiweb]

Monday night looks good on the forecast. Wonder if the heat will be a problem though. :question:
PS: All set up for tonight. Might grab couple of hours before midnight when it's supposed to turn to s....

[xelasnave]

Great at Tabby at the moment.
Auto guide not working so back to 30 seconds☺
It is a wonderful night ..clear and been using my new binnos to travel around.
Alex

[multiweb]

Must be something in the air. Trouble with guiding here too but it's clear. Happy times. :lol:

[LewisM]

Canberra has been OK tonight. Had a few runs of very high level cloud tonight, but cleared. Guiding was also an issue tonight, as it wouldn't guide at all - some nimrod didn't push the cable all the way in :P

Then for the first 30 minutes I'd forgotten to turn the cooling on...

Oh, and SharpCap refused to polar align plate solve for me...until I switched to the correct guide-camera...

Yeah, it's been SO long since I imaged last I'd lost my routine :)

[multiweb]

I'm shooting in Ha around the flame. in 10min subs. I have this body travelling in the direction of the arrow. It's not a hot pixel and it's far too slow to be a satellite. Any of you guys know what this is? Dennis? :)

[glend]

Maybe an asteroid, but nothing seems to be in that area at the time. Space junk?

[xelasnave]

I change to exposure to a second to focus and reposition...just did 30 minutes before I realised I had not gone back to 30☺
Bingbat☺
Battery is still going so very happy about that.
Alex

[multiweb]

I reckon it could be an asteroid. It's moving very slow. Maybe 2 arc min in the past hour or so.



My DEC was a little crazy before but I know what it is. My RA is fixed so guiding is a lot tighter than couple of days back. It's very dewy tonight though. Getting wet now. Just did a meridian flip and keep going. Mop ready.

[xelasnave]

I have some poor Ha around the flame I will keep a lookout for the object in Marcs image.
But all was on 30 seconds and the Ha did not look flash.
Good news the new battery and new inverter worked until I packed up so next thing to see if the solar panel provides sufficient charge to do another run tonight...but can I recharge tired me is the big question.☺
Alex

[multiweb]

Feeling a little hung over too this morning. High clouds rolled in around 4:00am here. It was a good night overall. Extremely wet though. I had to get a rug and wipe everything when packing up. Left everything to completely dry in the house. No dew on primary or secondary, just dripping wet everywhere else. Tonight might be short lived. It's a hot and windy day today.

[xelasnave]

Well I look out this morning and I think the dust is back.
I cant see the hills in the distance ...cant smell smoke.
So tonight maybe less than perfect.
Deep Sky Stacker has spat the dummy..stacks but produces no final photo.
I have called for help in the computer section and doing updates and a third reinstall.
Happily the lappy is stacking last night but my organisation is terrible...I cant tell what the filter situation is so I may go for a huge luminance and colour it in☺
Its dry here but still a little dew.
Alex

[xelasnave]

I am still working on my images of Horse Head but there is a long star in my photos...and these shots are only 30 seconds..it is cigar shape:eyepop:
I have not tried to round up my stars so as to preserve it ...even allowing for drift this thing is definitely, maybe, not round.
I will put up some photos later.
Alex

[xelasnave]

Silly me ..it was a stack of many 30 second shots...so if its moving...but I will look at individual frames to see how it shows at only 30 seconds☺
Alex

[multiweb]

Last night efforts. Did some Ha on the flame nebula. Still fishing for guide stars hence the offset but I'm getting there. RA was fine. DEC is still to be fixed. Seeing wasn't ideal but it's still pretty tight. QHY9/Baader 7nm Ha.
Thumbnail cropped due to alignment and meridian flip.

1 to 1 here (http://www.astropic.net/astro/flame_Ha_CN-212_1to1.jpg)and HD here (http://www.astropic.net/astro/flame_Ha_CN-212_HD.jpg).

Very noisy still so no good for sharpening or any kind of deconv. I really don't need to tighten the stars with that scope but if I get more data I'd like to sharpen it.

I added a video of a small body moving in the field. Each subs are 10min so it's not going very fast. Anybody wants a crack at checking what it is. I reckon it's not a satellite. I could be wrong though. Time was from 12:34am onwards, 10min increments from Sydney west last night.

https://vimeo.com/303962517

Kept Altinak just off the fov. I find that's it's ok as long as the core doesn't appear in the field. Otherwise you get a lot of reflections.

[multiweb]

It's clear again tonight all night. My body is telling me enough is enough but the little voice in my head is saying "c'mon... just one more...." :question:

[xelasnave]

If its clear you gotta be out there.
Take mini naps during exposue runs but get a decent sleep at work the next day.
Alex

[multiweb]

Sleeping at work? I can do that. :lol:

I'll be out again tonight for sure. I need to check my DEC. That has me a little stumped. It is definitely mechanical backlash not software related but I can't feel anything with the clutch engaged. Unless the coupling slips but again I've tightened that. And it's not the gearbox backlash either. :shrug:

[multiweb]

Bit disappointing last night as it got windy quite early in the night which kept everything amazingly dry but it was a pain to guide in the open. I stayed on the tarantula and did 17x600s until 3:00am. I'm still having DEC issues. Took the worm out twice during the night, changed the gearbox, checked the coupling, meshing, etc... I still get a lot of backlash when changing direction. I've narrowed it down to the worm block because I have swapped the RA with the DEC block and RA is fine. So the only thing I can think of is that I can't think of anything right now actually. :lol: I mean the coupling is tight, it doesn't slip. The meshing is as tight as it can be, there's minimal play in the gearbox (I've tried 3 different ones), the worm doesn't move in the blocks sideways, what else can it be? :shrug: An it's not software obviously. I get the same moving a star via the hand controller.

[RickS]

Hope you get the mount sorted, Marc. Looks like clouds clouds, clouds here for new moon.

[multiweb]

Yes here too that's why I still did last night although I was tired. Now it doesn't look like we're going to get a clear night for a little while. Seeing was quite good as well last night but it was windy. QLD coped it with the fires all week and now there's a low offshore that might travel west and drench you. Extremes.

[LewisM]

Even though the FSQ has minimal "Sail effect", it was till too windy for my liking here in Cannotberra last night.

Tonight is looking patchy, so I decided to lay foundations for my second imaging spot today at high noon. Gives me MUCH more view E-NE, so Orion is feasible for a larger portion of the night. The poopy weather gives the cement time to harden nicely.

[multiweb]

Thursday might be good. Some good seeing coming our way too so if it's clear happy days!

[multiweb]

Looks like a clear night with good seeing in Sydney tonight if it's not too windy.

[LewisM]

300KM away from you it is unstable and not looking fantastic, so make the best of it.

[multiweb]

Yeah the clouds rolled in around 23:30 from the SE. :sadeyes:
I was plotting along on the HH. Only got 6x5min. Seeing was very good too. :sad:

[Wavytone]

Still clear here (1 am). But the wind (easterly sea-breeze) has been terrible and is only starting to drop now.

[multiweb]

It was clear when I got up in the morning but solid cloud cover after midnight. Sometime the forecast is spectacularly wrong. Both GFS and ACCESS agreed on a cloud free night.

[RickS]

Black horse on a dark night, Marc? :lol: Is that at f/12 or with the reducer?

[multiweb]

Ha at F/12.4. It's like sucking cassoulet through a straw.
I haven't tried the reducer yet. The G11 has been keeping me busy. I try not to multi task.

[LewisM]

This obsession with cassoulet lately...you have a fart wish Marc :)

[RickS]

A little clear sky tonight and I'm trying the FSQ-85ED with the 0.73x reducer. Spacing is not quite right but promising results...

[multiweb]

Love the stuff, fell in it when I was little. ;)



Cool. :thumbsup: I think that's it in Sydney for the next few days. Clouds and possibly some rain. :question:

[multiweb]

Going to attempt tonight and try to some long exposures on the HH in ha. Moon is still small and far enough from Orion. Weather wise the latest forecast shows decent seeing and no major surface wind. Looks like we're between two bands of rain and unsettled weather to the south and the north. What do you reckon? Cutting it too close? :question:

[xelasnave]

Go out when dark...look at the sky and announce to the sky...does not look good I guess I will give it a miss tonight...casually walk back inside...wait fifteen minutes go out and you will find the sky is clear...casually say...oh well might just test mount control with the scope set up☺ setvup and pretend you are not interested in anything but the mount...do not look up for any reason...then announce I think I will go inside and watch tv...set camera running and casually walk away...by the time the clouds realise you are actually taking photos you should be done☺.
Alex

[multiweb]

:lol: Yeah I had that a few times after packing up it was clear. Conditions too unstable tonight to risk it. If I had a rolloff roof then yeah I could but not game to play chicken with storms.

[multiweb]

Sunday night and Monday night have been looking pretty good for a while now. It's full moon but who cares. Decent seeing, not too hot and no wind. Fingers crossed. Two excellent nights to get out there and tweak things.

[multiweb]

Last night was excellent in western Sydney. Bright moon and a little dewy by the end but clear, no wind and decent seeing. Did a bit on the tarantula and eat carina with the full moon in the back. Good fun night. Probably at it tonight again. :thumbsup:

[ChrisV]

Well done. I gotta go mono/narrowband some time. It was a good night last night. Ah well at least I could try out my trial version of SGPro.

[multiweb]

Yeah it was a great night, back at it tonight. :stargaze:

[multiweb]

Another great night in Sydney last night. Got now a bit over 5h of ha on the keyhole. Looks like I might be able to go to 8 maybe 9h tonight. The moon was up but transparency where I am was very good, so minimum glare. Seeing was great too.

[The Mekon]

Interesting that the title of this thread is "good seeing". Last night I was out and as Marc says, the transparency was great, but the seeing (steadiness of atmosphere) left a lot to be desired.

[multiweb]

Really? :question: I thought it was pretty good, same as yesterday and the transparency was certainly a lot better than yesterday in Hoxton Park, don't know about Bowral. I imaged at 2.6m FL and got some pretty good details. Out again tonight after it cools down a little.

PS: this is what I got on the keyhole past two nights. ~5.5h now in 5min subs.

[RickS]

Nice :thumbsup:

I finally got rid of the guests and got set up. Don't have long to catch Oiii before the moon gets up.

[multiweb]

:lol: Got your priorities right. :P
Beaute night again here in Sydney. Collecting more data. :stargaze:

[multiweb]

So last night was great again. That's 3 in a row now and out again tonight. Got just past 10h on the keyhole and a few on the tarantula in between. Today's really hot but the forecast for tonight looks good again. There were a very few thin patchy clouds last night around 3:00 but they dissipated very quickly and weren't where I was imaging. As far as I can tell the seeing was very good again. Couldn't see any noticeable twinkling and the guiding was sort of ok, but that's just me. :lol:

[Karlzburg]

It was good last night Marc once the heat left, I had the reducer off last night an did Eta Carinae again to see the difference. My lappy is doing the final noise reduction then I'll put it up.

Tonight's meant to be good too, but checking temps here it'll still be 25 deg at 11-12 o'clock. The DSLR won't be liking it. For the next few days we'll be having over 36 deg and clear nights.
I'm thinking of putting an attachment on my DSLR to hook a hose and pump cooled air in, not sure yet whether it'll work or not but using the existing mounting thread on the camera.

[multiweb]

Yeah looks like a couple of hot days coming up and that means potential rain storms out of the blue. 25c at night is quite good. With a DSLR yeah it's all up hill with those warm summer nights. I don't think cool air will do anything. You should get a small cooled CCD second hand. I once tried to put a Pentax in the fridge in a plastic bag. It didn't work to well when I took it out. It dewed up in half a second. :lol:

[Karlzburg]

Ha ha I've tried the fridge idea, it didn't last long. I'm looking at getting a cooled camera but not sure which to get for DSO

[multiweb]

I have a QHY8 and a QHY9. QHY are good price and bang for the buck. Always second hand for sale too. Or ZWO. They're ok as well. I have a small 120mm for planetary.

[Wavytone]

John the microclimate of your locality and the immediate surroundings can have a huge influence on seeing - far more than many realise.

It isn’t as dependent on the jet stream as many think. The first (lowest) 1000 metres of the air column along the line of sight matter most.

[multiweb]

Can't believe it's clear again. :stargaze:
Clocking more hours on the tarantula right now (just passed 3h) then will finish my run on Eta Carina and call it a day as clouds look like they're back in the next few days.

[multiweb]

This coming Friday night could be clear after the day heat if we don't get localised storms. The jetstream and wind forecast also looks favorable. New moon too. Might try some color with the CN-212 with the OSC see what happens.

[Startrek]

Ive been down the south coast at my holiday pad since Boxing Day and haven’t had a clear night as yet. AP rig is all set up in the backyard but covered and unpowered.My 12” GoTo Dob is in the garage covered as well and ready to roll out
The high pressure systems pushing around the bite and up the coast since last week haven’t cleared the moisture away from our region, lots of Lows behind them so still getting an onshore stream with low level cloud of an evening
Late tonight is looking better and Friday night is looking real good but the wind will be up around 20km/hr which is manageable
Oh well the joys of summer, short nights, humidity, mosquitoes, Christmas beetles flying into your OTA and cloud
Fingers crossed
Cheers

[multiweb]

We should ask the BoM to have a mosquitoes index like the UV index. :lol:

[Startrek]

Totally agree Marc good idea
Better still how about an insectometer , there’s every creepy crawly and flying insect around your imaging rig all night down here,you have to soak yourself in Deet just to check how your imaging is going !!

[Wavytone]

That would make for some interesting comparisons across the network of weather stations !

[multiweb]

Chickened out last night. The clouds didn't go away until 22:30 and there were a lot of small storm cells on the radar so I thought not worth the risk. It was clear later on though but woke up to cloudy skies again. Anyone out imaging last night? Today's very hazy and it's going to be hot. So not sure. Then tomorrow the cold front will bring strong wind for sure.

[Startrek]

Clear all night down the south coast, started NGC 2244 but had to bring the OTA inside and do some running repairs on the primary mirror spacers ( damn cork gets compressed and gives way after time )
Got back out at 10.00pm and took 30 x 5 minute subs and darks , finished at 2.30am
Back out tonight again, clear day and night , the Milky Way was painted across the sky last night so vivid , it was beautiful !!
Cheers

[multiweb]

:clap: So jealous! I was planning on starting some subs on the Rosette after finishing off the Tarantula. Tonight looks too bloody hot as well. Still around 30c most of the night. :eyepop: I'm not that keen.

[multiweb]

Setting up tonight. Looks like a decent night. :thumbsup:

[Startrek]

Looking great for tonight down the south coast , extended family are down so setting up the 12” Goto Dob in the front driveway for visuals on M42 and some globs etc and setting up the imaging rig in the backyard to continue with the Rosette Nebula
Going to try more shorter subs with a higher ISO say 60 x 2 minute at ISO 1600 plus darks , PHD2 guiding of course
Good luck who ever is out tonight !!
Cheers

[multiweb]

Sunday night (3rd) is still looking pretty good.

[Startrek]

Yep Sunday night is on
Heading down the coast on Sunday morning to my holiday pad for 2 weeks ( hopefully February will be kind to us - December and January were very ordinary ( only 3 or 4 good nights over the whole period , but expected )
My rig is already set up with a cover over it from 2 weeks ago , just have to mount the OTA and camera etc. and plug in
Then Thursday onwards is looking ok too ( fingers crossed )
Cheers

[ChrisV]

Better get my dew heater back together. Or is that asking for trouble

[multiweb]

I'd really like to get the Rosette this year. Missed out on it last year with unstable weather and again all orion was a wash up this season with the heat.

[xelasnave]

Just arrived at Tabby and there is a little cloud...well a lot☺ but it wont rain unfortunately.
I am actually happy as if it was clear I would have to set up notwithstanding 10 hours on the road (in the car of course).

Anyways dragged all the gear back up yet again....it is amazing how much stuff goes to make up a set up...all the little things...tools tape spare batteries little lights battery charger battery solar panel scope mount and camera ...beach umbrella 12 volt fans dslr camera and bag of stuff.. insect repelant...lap top , inverter, power cords etc... table chair walki g stick☺ I use a shooting stick very handy item... my little car is packed to the brim... could hardly fit in the gold panning gear☺.

Alex

[Startrek]

Chris
I set my dew kit up all year round on the scope regardless , you never know being near the coast
Marc
Still plenty of time to capture the Rosette and Orion , still up fairly high moving from east to west crossing the north meridian.February temps should be a bit lower we hope
Alex
You forgot to mention the esky

Sunday is on for me down the coast clear day and night and maybe Monday night as well , night temp around 21 deg with a light north Easter and nice and dark. Going to image Eta Carinae
Hope you all have clear skies
Cheers

[xelasnave]

It rained last night thank goodness.
Today I am making a silver cover for the gear.
I found that those sunshields you use in the car are best to keep the gear cool. Its just a big bag approx mtr x mtr and I will add a 12 volt fan. I found the beach umbrella was getting blown off...and although I will fix that problem in the future I think the silver bag will work great and at the end of the night just so easy to throw over the gear.
Still got about 6 meters of this stuff left so might do some cuts to cover the car dash etc...custom fit☺
Actually a hat out of this stuff would be good ...tin foil hats work well to keep the heat out as well as alien mind bending attacks☺.
Just realised there is a lot of sand up the back brought from the Rocky River for the horses lunging yard..I may try panning and see if there is gold in it...wouldnt that be a laugh...but there is a good chance I could get colour.

Have unloaded the car (what an effort that was) but its a little drizzly so will wait before setting up...still setting up in rain could be good experience for setting up in rain.
Alex

[ChrisV]

Good luck Alex (with everything in that load) and Marc (with the rosette)

[xelasnave]

Finished the silver bag now for some panning☺
Alex

[multiweb]

Three clear nights forecast in Sydney. It might be windy and the seeing is atrocious. :shrug: but hey... it's clear.

[glend]

The wind should die off after dark, and the Seeing should improve by midnight as the sky cools down.. Good luck.

[Startrek]

I’m down at my holiday place near Ulladulla and CFN has the next 4 nights clear down here with seeing improving by tomorrow night.
Just going to use the 12” GoTo Dob tonight for some visuals out the front and the Astro rig is set up out the back ready for tomorrow night onwards
Take advantage of the clear nights as this summer has been ordinary along the mid to south NSW coastal strip ( to be expected I suppose )
Clear Skies
Cheers

[multiweb]

Will set up the FSQ. I reckon the seeing won't be good enough to image at long FL and surface wind might be an issue too.

[glend]

Just wanted to note that conditions were pretty rare up here last night with humidity staying below 35% until after midnight. Even at 1am when i closed the Obs the humidity was still below 40%. Given this massive Lake just down the street, i rarely see it this dry. I can only attribute it to the very slight breeze out of the North-West. I hope Sydney guys got the same dry breeze.

[Startrek]

Clouds cleared from the South West around 10.30pm last night so just used the 12” GoTo Dob last night to view some clusters, M42, Eta and a few others plus the wind was up
Tonights looking very very good for imaging down here ( near Ulladulla)
Low humidity, overnight temp of 14 deg and Jetstream at around 35kt
Going to image Eta again after a rain affected night last Wednesday
Monday and Tuesday nights are looking ok too but tonight is the pick of the crop
Cheers

[Wavytone]

At Terrey Hills it was windy all night till at least 12:30 when I went home. Big band of cloud based over about 10 and the temperature dropped somewhat. Seeing was atrocious - no point going past 100 or 120X - but the transparency was OK.

Well at least the scope had a night out :)

[multiweb]

Setup tonight, everything is plugged in and working, already focused on sirius. Transparency is good, wind is slowly dying. Planning to do a bit of ha on the rosette and cone neb. Fingers crossed.

[multiweb]

Predictions for this new moon week-end in Sydney are looking pretty good. If it stays clear jetstream and wind look optimal for Sunday and Monday. :stargaze:

[Startrek]

Sunday looks good
Monday is excellent
Have a look at the CFN data
Heading down the coast on Sunday
Happy imaging !!

[ChrisV]

Don't know about others but March has been a disaster for me. Nice sunny days though - as the creepy weather forecasters say.

[multiweb]

Western Sydney week-end looks pretty good as far as clear skies go. Seeing looks awful Saturday but Sunday's not bad so far in the forecast. Anyway got to get the mount out at least once before the SPSP so I don't end up like a goose at the house trying to remember what to do. :lol:

[multiweb]

I spent last night out until 2:00am when clouds rolled in from the west. The seeing was good enough to test my mount at long FL but it was extremely wet after midnight. I did a couple of hours on NGC6188 and tested all the new software installed on a windows 10 laptop I just got. My old windows 7 notebook has been having increasing issues lately. I'll probably have to blank it and reinstall. I'm hoping to do some more tonight. The mount is behaving now. I have to go through all the PEC training again but it was good enough last night and a lot better than my last attempt.

[glend]

Similar here Marc, last night was good for a few hours, then a high cloud band moved in from the northwest, but the Moon was getting up by then anyway. It was dry up till then as well. Agreed that there are some good looking night's coming up.

[multiweb]

Anyone was out last night? It was a good one in western Sydney. Went down to 12c, a little wet. Seeing was so so until 3:00am when it turned to sh|t but overall a good night. No wind this time. Friday was windy well until after midnight. Tonight looks good again. Been out every night since Friday now. :stargaze:

[Wavytone]

Yes was out last night at Terrey Hills... quite chilly and the seeing was fair but transparency not great. No good for galaxies or nebulae. Light northerly breeze was enough to keep the site free of dew.

Only pain was having the RFS turn up at 9pm to try their new toy - a fire engine equipped with a set of monster floodlights on a long boom ! Thankfully they turned it off and packed it away.

[gregbradley]

Yes its been several lovely nights in a row now.

Greg.

[Startrek]

CFN has 90% to 100% cloud over Sydney tonight
I’m in Sydneys south and see cloud pushing in from the east fairly quickly
No Go tonight

[multiweb]

I was out last night until 1:00am. I think it's the end of the run now. The front is coming from SW. Once it passes we might be clear again but the jetstream is bloody roaring next few days.

[AstralTraveller]

I started this morning at 3.30 and went till dawn on the planets and luna. Once the clouds cleared the seeing seemed ok naked eye but actually only supported 280x in the C11 and 224x was better on the moon. With patience I managed some nice moments on each object. I'm going to save up my sleep and hope to get away over the weekend.

[multiweb]

Very short window of opportunity tomorrow night where it's clear with improved seeing if the timing sticks.

[Startrek]

Tonight the jetstream is screaming along at over 100kt
Saturday night look much better only running around 50kt and dropping
My screen shots of ( CFN ) Cloud Free Night

[ChrisV]

There was an amazing hour or two last night where I was getting 0.5"rms guiding - I've never seen that on my cgem before.
Then if popped back up to 1" later on and started there for the rest of the night. Damn.

[Wavytone]

Never mind the jet stream - it’s howling in the upper blue mountains

[Startrek]

Just finished setting up outside, just a quick collimation check and ready to power up
Wind has dropped off from earlier today
Clear night too
If fact the next 5 nights look ok in Sydney
Take advantage of the cooler nights as well for all the DSLR guys
Enjoy

[MortonH]

Pretty good tonight. Having some excellent views of the Moon in my C5.