Thinking of getting out tonight and image the planets. Bit of wind gusts this arvo still, hope it dies at dark. Seeing looks ok(ish) for tonight but it's clear. Sunday onwards looks cloudy. Who's having a go tonight too?
Looks like a good night for imaging and observing in the South Coast NSW
Some broken cloud around now but it’s all suppose to clear by 8.30 to 9.00pm
Going to finish off a few hours on NGC 6744 Pavo Galaxy
Last night I was imaging NGC 6744 very windy early on but stopped around 10pm.See was average but my guiding was incredible, guide star SNR very stable with nice narrow peak on the guide star profile , RA 0.65 DEC 0.50
Looks can be deceiving
A give away for me on any night to determine how stable things are up there is focusing , once I start taking 20sec test exposures zoomed in on a mag 2.50 to 3.50 Star for focusing and I get my diffraction spikes tac sharp and loooong ... I know it’s going to be really good
I don’t use fancy software to focus , just my remote control JMI focuser and my eyes ....usually focused in around 5 minutes
Enjoy tonight what ever you do , wherever you are !!
Yes tonight is looking like a good one, the wind has dropped to nothing up here, and the humidity is just 24%. I have the scopes in the observatory ready to go. Hoping to get my highest magnification on Mars.
Last night I had Mars on screen and it looked like something wiggly you would see under the microscope although I started on the spider when it was still in the trees and after half an hour when it cleared it did seem more settled...my attitude these days is if it is clear and blowing a gale just go for it.if half cloud go visual..deep sky is more forgiving than planets.
Good luck to all ..get out there it is Saturday night afterall.
Alex
Pretty decent night so far. The wind died around 20:00. Seeing is touch and go but seems to improve a bit. Mars is getting up. Filled one 250GB drive already with Jupiter and Saturn.
250g is a lot of images but maybe not a lot of video.
Very nice night last night and even better tonight. Dry and warm and clear.
I have the scope scripting some images and it seems like it could run all night if the software does not crash. Running all night is a novelty for me. Better check I have the limits set.
Quote:
Originally Posted by multiweb
Pretty decent night so far. The wind died around 20:00. Seeing is touch and go but seems to improve a bit. Mars is getting up. Filled one 250GB drive already with Jupiter and Saturn.
250g is a lot of images but maybe not a lot of video.
Very nice night last night and even better tonight. Dry and warm and clear.
I have the scope scripting some images and it seems like it could run all night if the software does not crash. Running all night is a novelty for me. Better check I have the limits set.
Ray was there a fire down around Wollongong way tonight? Just saw a story on the news feeds.
250g is a lot of images but maybe not a lot of video.
Very nice night last night and even better tonight. Dry and warm and clear.
I have the scope scripting some images and it seems like it could run all night if the software does not crash. Running all night is a novelty for me. Better check I have the limits set.
I typically do around 1.5TB per session, 5 to 6h.
You've made your own imaging planning software?
Had a lovely night out with some fellow club members at our Southern Highlands dark site, best night for ages, got dewy later on though but was dry for most of the evening. Looking north from home in the arvo , there was a fire up in the Royal NP it seemed, lots of smoke , maybe it was a controlled burn ahead of summer.
Did some Jupiter and Mars video imaging but not as much as Marc and others, maybe 50Gb once the raw files are debayered, seeing wasn't as good as wished for, again. The Ganymede transit was the main aim, coupled with the Red Spot and have some processing to do later today.
Also did some deep sky that I'm keen to find out how it will turn out when stacked etc. Did I mention how nice it was to be out under mainly dark panoramic skies again, most of our dark of the moon weekends for the past several months have been clouded out, rained out out or too windy to do anything with. The drawback of club outings being limited to mostly saturday nights.
I discovered that the later script also set gain and offset to 0 and did not change the filter from Ha to Oiiii. Interesting experiment though for a couple of hours of Ha. Ha and Double Ha.