Excellent seeing in Perth tonight

[sn1987a]

Beautiful Mars in my 18 at the moment best I've seen it in my backyard for ages, get your scopes out.:)

[MrB]

Yes, I was very tempted.
Choice boiled down to setting up the scope and sitting in the cold, or watching the F1 in the warmth... guess which option won ;)

Hoping it's going to be just as good tomorrow night.

[sn1987a]

what's an F1???!:P

[blink138]

its the same as the WC but on vallium!
pat

[Chris85]

It's looking really good! Pity all my gear is in pieces for a bit of r&r. Oh well I snooze, I lose!

[sn1987a]

If you guys could see the Mars I'm seeing right now there would be a lot of Holy **** going on!

[beren]

:P Typical when home cloudy, away working clear

[Astro_Bot]

You lucky, lucky b*stards. Enjoy it while you can! :)

Edit: According to the jetstream chart there's a little hole of slow wind (<40kts) over Perth right now.

[sn1987a]

Africa on a peach pink sea with frosty icing top and bottom :D

Update: It's not every night you can put the 3.7 Ethos on Saturn but tonights the night!

[ianB]

I have been waiting for about 3 weeks to view mars, its eitherraing or the jet stream is high. ( 90 knots tonight )

[rogerg]

hmm, didn't get a chance to do imaging last night ... shame !

[MrB]

Last night when I checked Skippysky for tonight, things were looking good.
It doesn't look so good now (Jetstream ~60kn)
Should still be ok for me with my short FL stuff(~450mm), hopefully.

[raymo]

I don't live too far from you Simon, but I am clouded out as usual.
raymo

[MrB]

Yes ~200km is enough for a world of difference with weather.

[rogerg]

Looking very good in the hills tonight. FWHM 2.98.

[Brian3.]

Beautiful clear day but I want to know who God's name ordered the cloud cover for tonight? I mean Mandurah is only 70Km south of Perth and this is just not fair...

[rogerg]

Hmm, could be fog/sea fog. In which case all the better for me, if fog blocks out the light pollution on "the flats" ;)

[MrB]

No cloud here but I got home from work at 7:30 and had lost all enthusiasm for setting up.

[rogerg]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has that trouble. Last night I was able to get things going.

[Brian3.]

By 9.30pm last night the sky above Mandurah was clear with nair a twinkle to be seen. BUT the beginning of the next ice age took its toll on my intentions.
Time to buy some serious winter wear even if it is only for a few months...the prospect of anatomical depletion demands I do just that. The clear skies are here for another day (night) or two.

[rogerg]

:lol:

[alocky]

I was getting sub arc-second tracking last night here! I'm glad I stayed up until the clouds parted. Hopefully more of the same tonight, and I still have the mount setup and polar aligned to perfection! And the automated meridian flips work!

[raymo]

Even at 6 or 7 degrees ambient my fingertips go numb. In my dotage
I am finding winter imaging[ or viewing] a real trial. Luckily for my
fingers, I get few chances here in winter. After the west coast of Tassie,
[where I used to live], this must be the cloudiest area in Oz. I've had one
useable night in the last 9 weeks, and expect an average of around 2
useable nights a month over July-September period.
raymo

[sn1987a]

Vote +1 on gtb an owl freezer suits, mine has been a great investment. You stay warm and toasty all night even lie on the ground and go to sleep if cloud rolls in.:D

[MrB]

If they weren't 'hi-vis' I would have bought some by now.
Hate hi-vis soooo much.

I'm hoping to pick up a pair of lace-up bogan boots today tho :D
http://www.mrsheepskin.com.au/showProduct/Products/Footwear/FWLU/Lace_Up_Boots

All I need now is a beer gut, a flanny and a mullet and I'm set!

[MrB]

Just picked up my bogan boots, jeebuz these things are huge!
I'm normally a size 12 or 13 depending on brand, but the 13 UGGs were too tight, so I had to get the 14/15 :eyepop:
The extra-bogan lace-ups weren't available in this size, they offered to make them for me and ship to me for free, but I needed them by Thursday latest as I'm driving to Dryandra on Friday.
Oh well, I'll be warm.

[rogerg]

Ski gear :) works well for me. I admit though, the cold doesn't appeal these days. :)

[MrB]

Hey why didn't I think of that?! Duh :lol:
Some of the Mountain Designs stuff doesn't look too bad.

[blink138]

i have just sold my trusty c102 f5 achro which i used as a guidescope atop my g11 and i am currently waiting for the new one, so these clear nights are killing me in more ways than one, luckily i have a lot of football to catch up on ha ha!
looks like it will be fantastic tonight especially for dslr imagers as the sensor will stay nice and cool!
pat

[rogerg]

Thermals + ski pants = 1000x warmer than jeans :)

[MrB]

Oh yeah Jeans are useless. When I travelled thru Sweden I took a backpack full of clothes. One night it got to 14 below, I was wearing almost everything I had and was still cool. Not cold but cool.
I was wearing thermals, tracky pants and two pairs of jeans... I'd have put more on but it was getting a bit tight. The jeans were useless.

Looking good out there again tonight!
Just got home from work, once I've eaten and done my little bub duty, might get some practise in with the Astrotrac, get ready for this weekend at Dryandra :D

[raymo]

What clear nights?
raymo

[rogerg]

Dryandra ... nice! Astrotrac ... nice! :)



You might need to migrate north for the winter ;)

[MrB]

Shaping up to be another good night for Perth, until midnight anyway.


Yep and Yep :)
Tho the BOM forecast for Friday is possible showers, and Partially cloudy for Sat and Sun.... aargh!

Finally got out last night at 11:30 :eyepop:
Got the Astrotrac setup and got PA as close as I could.
Tested for widefield at 105mm with a 5 min sub, no guiding, perfectly round stars. Good enough.
Sadly tho, the sub was totally washed out with light pollution.
I then reduced to 2 min subs.
Took 30 subs(1 hour) aimed at Rho Oph. The result was worse than a single 3min sub of the same region from Nannup :mad2:
One powerball......

[rogerg]

Yeah, think I'm out for tonight. Got some image processing to do amongst other life issues, no time to plan what new stuff I'd photograph.



That's the nice thing about the AT. It's PE is so good that if you get the alignment reasonable, it guides so nice. It's rare for me to have a problem with exposures shorter than 3 minutes.

11:30 is a tad late! past my bed time :)

[MrB]

Dunno why I bothered playing with this crappy data I got last night.
Here's the difference between nice dark country skies and suburban hell. Had to stretch heavily to get it even close.
From this day forward, I'm doing narrowband only from home.

[rogerg]

Quite an interesting comparison.

[blink138]

love (actually hate!) that comparison simon, wish i had not seen that ha ha!
makes me wonder why we actually bother in the city, but i, like yourself wonder about narrowband, at least you are in rockingham
pat

[rogerg]

I'd like to get in to narrowband but my CFW on my SBIG is only 5 position. Not really sure how to get around that and not mess up automation. Having two wheels doesn't work well for automation, and I'm not sure what 8+ position wheel would work well with the SBIG and CCDCommander etc, and not be enormously heavy. Until then I'm limited to CLRGB

[MrB]

Hi Pat, wonder no more. NB with the 60Da works fine.
The two pics linked below were taken at or around full moon.
Moon didn't really bother the Ha but the OIII fogged a bit but not a deal breaker. Light pollution had minimal effect, if any. These were 'wide' filters too, at 12nm.
Once I get the corrector spacing issue sorted I reckon I'll be pretty happy :D

http://www.astrobin.com/90125/
http://www.astrobin.com/98888/

[blink138]

cheezes simon that is unbelievable with a 60da from an LP sky
i do not understand however how you incorporate the normal light with the ha light and where?
i have googled it a number of times but i do not get it really!
pat

[MrB]

Thanks Pat, there's still a lot of room for improvement.
There are no 'normal' RGB lights in the shot.
The colour image is only a combination of the Ha and the OIII data, where the Ha is mapped to the red channel while the OIII is mapped to both the green and blue channels.

There is another method that maps Ha to red and the OIII to green as before, but then a combination of the OIII with a small percentage of Ha is mapped to blue, this is supposed to replicate a H-beta filter.
I tried this method and the colour did look better but I stuffed up my process somehow and the overall image was poor. I haven't had time to go back and start over.

[blink138]

i just missed out on an astronomik 2" ha filter last year here on iis, i must pursue the item a lot more vigorously looking at the results now
pat

[MrB]

Oops, we've kinda derailed this thread, sorry Barry :lol:

Definitely worth pursuing.
The subs were 10mins with a little 70mm achro at f6.
The Carina neb is ofcourse very bright, but I reckon with the 102 f5 you have you'll be laughing.

I recently did some test shots with a 6" newt at f2.8 (~f3 light grasp when accounting for central obstruction) and Carina's core would be overexposed at anything over 5 min subs!
Same result with M8, overexposed core when over 5 mins.
The newt still needs some fine tuning before I can get serious with it tho.

[rogerg]

I didn't do any imaging last night but caught up on processing of comet images from the night before.

7x600s on S3 LONEOS (someting like mag 16). FWHM ~2.2-2.8!

http://rogergroom.com/astro-photography/comet-photography/photographs-of-comet-c2006-s3-leneos/

[blink138]

back to "normal" today guys ha ha!
pat

[sn1987a]

I'm out of town at the moment, back on Saturday, hoping for clear skies. Another night or two like the first one would be great. I would love to get a clear enough night like that again especially if I've got the 28 cranked up and running.

[MrB]

Friday night was awesome in Dryandra! My SQM gave an average reading of mag 21.6.
When I finally decided enough was enough at around 3am, my black pelican case for my camera and lenses was white with frost and there was ice forming on parts of the Astrotrac's pier.
I thought about taking a photo of the frost/ice but BRRRR!! I just wanted to get inside and sit in front of the fire pronto.
The bogan boots(UGGS) worked perfectly, my feet were toasty all night. :thumbsup:


That was probably an unfair comparison(very slightly), the Nannup image looks like it was shot with the lens wide open(f2.8)

Here is a new comparison with 1x 5min sub from the 5 hours of data I got while in Dryandra over the weekend.
All gear and settings are the same for both shots with the only exception being the sub length.
The single Dryandra sub was a very quick and basic process for the purpose of the comparison.
It is easy to see the 60min stack has had to be pushed very hard.

I'm now going through the 5 hours of subs to weed out the sub-par subs, can't wait to stack and play with this data! :D

[raymo]

After many weeks I am still waiting for just one imaging night.:mad2::mad2:
raymo

[alocky]

Friday night was very dark, the seeing was a bit average but the transparency was exceptional. It go so cold ice formed on the shroud of the 25" and I'm glad I've got heavy-duty anti-dew systems on it. I was out near the lakes on the way to York.
Only downside was the ice that formed on the ramp up into the trailer. I slipped on it while pushing the scope back in and ended up slightly bruised and battered. Fortunately no damage to the scope!
Staurday looked good, but my leave pass had expired.
Cheers,
Andrew.

[MrB]

Ouch Andrew!
Saturday wasn't looking good from Dryandra while we played a couple of rounds of bush golf, but eventually the cloud cleared and it was perfectly clear. By the time I was setup and ready to go tho, new thin high cloud had rolled in from the west :(

[MrB]

I seem to be chasing my tail trying to get the most out of this, I am definitely no good at processing! haha
Every time I try to use the calibration files(darks/flats/bias) everything goes to crap, dunno why.
This was just some mucking around(curve tweaking/slider sliding) I really need to follow some of the tutorials out there to make this pop.

This is about half of the lights(~2.5hours) only, no calibration.
Lots of jpeg compression artifacts even at such a small size due to the 200k file limit here.

[alocky]

What software are you using for the calibration? That data looks pretty damn good, nice and sharp and it went fairly deep if you can get that much out of it with only a levels and curve stretch. Dare I say it, but the scripts in pixinisght take all the pain of calibrations away! Personally, I like the more muted tones of the colours in this version.
I'll say ouch - I've got a lump on my head and a nice big bruise on my shoulder from being driven into the ground by the wheelbarrow handles of my scope, and then run over by it! I think my nice soft squishy body protected it, though.:)
cheers,
Andrew.

[sn1987a]

Thank goodness the scope is all right :P

[blink138]

simon........ that is very good!
pat

[MrB]

Cheers Guys. Still a long way to go before I'm happy with it.
Not sure about sharp, maybe at the scale shown here :D The only lens I have available that gives the image scale I wanted has pretty severe red CA.


I use AstroArt v5. I also downloaded the demo of Nebulosity and I also get weird results when using the calibration files, obviously I'm doing something wrong.

Yes just mucking around in Lightroom and CS2.
My processing goes something like this:
Think I'll move this slider, hmm yeah that looks better, I wonder what this other slider does... umm nope, undo.
I have no I dea what I'm doing in post haha (or pre for that matter... re: calibration :lol:)
I did trial PI a long time ago, it just seems impossible to use at my skill level.

Damn that doesn't sound good! Is there anything you can get to add some grip on the ramp?

[alocky]

simple - wear the hiking boots I normally do, and not the smooth leather soled RM williams I had on that night! My own fault, really.
cheers,
Andrew.

[sn1987a]

Good seeing in Perth last night, Saturn was very sharp and its looking good again tonight. :D yay!

[MrB]

Typical, the good nights are the nights I have to work late. Looks good out there, maybe a little high cloud?

[sn1987a]

Yeah wisps of cloud, last night was better still its not too bad and it might get better. Hopefully Sunday night will perk up as we're going out bush.

[rogerg]

Looking forward to a string of good nights coming up, fingers crossed :thumbsup:

[blink138]

yes fingers crossed roger, my brother and i had prepared to go east a little ways last weekend but....................... i guess we needed the rain more
if i manage to get out this week it will be the first time in about three months, however i just picked up an ha narrowband filter on here so at least i can get some data during moon time!
pat

[sn1987a]

18 and 28 standing by :D

[MrB]

Skippy looks good for cloud and ok for transperancy, but the seeing isn't looking that great.
I might try optimising my corrector spacing tonight.

[rogerg]

Oh c'mon, this is ridiculous ... give me clear sky! (see attached forecast) :help:

[blink138]

this is utter poo!................ still my apm 107 has not had its lens cap off!!
pat

[sn1987a]

I'm relining my trailer while I'm waiting for the cloud to clear :P

[alocky]

So who's been buying stuff. Barry? You're the usual culprit!
New deep cycle batteries don't count, so it's not me...
Cheers,
Andrew

[sn1987a]

Err nope!, not me, I've been a model of Astro frugality lately. I've got too much cr.., um stuff. :D

[brian nordstrom]

;) Does my li'l 60mm triplet with a few accessories count ? but I did have a good session Friday night using my C9.25 on Saturn and Mars which is shrinking fast ! , but as usual its been rubbish since .
Brian.

[rogerg]

Well, last night I managed some observations. I left the observatory running (with weather monitoring confirmed to be working in case of rain!) and with repeated attempts on the one target between 12 midnight and 6am I managed to get some series of usable images. :D

Now ... I need new reduction images! because of the warmer night (in part due to cloud, largely due to this awful High system which is sitting on top of us) it the camera was only at -20 :( and seems I'm missing -20 dark frames :(. So, can't process the images until I do a reduction run tonight.

Great to have some fresh data though.

[sn1987a]

Tonight's lookin' good, Saturn nice and sharp :D

[sn1987a]

Oookaayy..... who ordered the smokey haze?.

[MrB]

Yes.
I was driving home about 6:30 thinking this could be good.
Got home, did a few chores, had dinner, chilled for a few, then went outside with scope under arm and... Crap! :mad2:

[pgc hunter]

I'm not in Perth but ofcourse I can definitely relate. Got back from work last night, nice and clear. Set the scope up. Have dinner. 1 hour later - pea soup fog. Herp de derp :mad2:

[blink138]

ha ha i stupidly set my scope up saturday arvo............. as soon as dusk came in rolled the clouds!
'ol mother nature is taking the piss now!!
pat

[rogerg]

Yes, I had the same Pat :) I was hopeful but not to be! My observatory started up and then first shot taken, and roof closes, I think what the! then realise it's detected heavy cloud and shut up :(

[MrB]

Yeah me too.
I hadn't set up but I was getting everything ready.
I should have known better as Skippysky was showing cloud arriving about 5pm but wishful thinking got the better of me :(
ATM projects for me then this weekend...

[blink138]

.................. all we need now is some thunder and lightning............ oh wait.... there it is!
unbelievable ha ha, oh well we do need the rain, ho hum!!
pat

[MrB]

If it was a summer storm I wouldn't mind, photographing storms is another hobby of mine, but winter storms move too fast, are too wet and they're not very lightning active, no fun.
They do put some water in the dams tho, one positive.

[rogerg]

:lol:

[rogerg]

Tonight's looking half reasonable for a chance. :thumbsup:

[MrB]

It is!? Wouldn't have thunk it from my drive to work thru the fog.
Will check skippysky, cheers for the heads-up :thumbsup:

[rogerg]

I laughed at my comMeNt 15 minutes later when it was pouring with rain here :lol:

When I wrote it:
1) it was bright and sunny
2) skippy sky says it will be clear
3) weatherzone forecast says "mostly clear"

... so ... still possible it will be good :)

[MrB]

Haha. Skippy is showing cloud from about 8pm on, keeping my eye on it for changes. Fingers crossed.

[blink138]

yirravin' a laff? are ye?................ avin a laff?
ha ha sorry roger couldnt help myself! its a joke this weather, i have actually forgotten the star alignement routine on my g11, i am going to have to read the bloody start up menu!..................cheez!!
pat

[sn1987a]

Yep not holding my breath.:sadeyes:

http://realtime2.bsch.au.com/vis_sat.html?region=wa&loop=&images=&allday=&start=&stop=

[MrB]

Just stepped outside at work to have a cancer stick and it's clear in almost every direction.
Will it hold? Not likely, but there could be some usable sucker holes tonight.

[sn1987a]

Saturn looking good :)

[clive milne]

You are a machine Barry!

[rogerg]

Yee who has no faith .... look see ... attached :) ;)

[MrB]

Yep, Roger called it very early.
Gold star! :lol:

[rogerg]

Let's not jinx it shall we :lol:

[rogerg]

Considering that according to the radar it's raining over the southern part of Perth this evening, I'm surprised to have quite good viewing conditions up in the hills ... HFD 3.2 which is quite good.

[MrB]

It's nice to have the radar back!
No rain here for the last few hours, but definitely no clear sky either.

[blink138]

well here is my "alternative" setup for imaging
i have had the scope for more than a month i think but just received all of the adapters and a new orion guidescope monday past
needless to say i have not used it in anger yet and it has not seen the light of night
tripod look familiar roger?
if it does not get out soon i am looking at the lens cap thinking..... that will be a good peanut holder, ashtray or even one of those dishes you put under plant pots for water
pat

[raymo]

It's raining here.
raymo

[MrB]

Damn clear skies and F1 quali's on at the same time! :mad2:

[raymo]

Tonight is 10 weeks since I last got a useable night. Three times the radar showed clear, set up and aligned, three times socked in within
minutes. I could cry. Even worse, I've just about run out of old stuff
to play with.
raymo

[rogerg]

Raymo you need to move north for astronomy :)

Third clear consecutive night tonight, and great clarity too ... HDF is as perfect as it gets. :thumbsup:

[raymo]

OOOOOOOOOOOH, you are naughty, rubbing salt into my wound.
I would if I could, but I can't, so I won't.
raymo:(:(

[MrB]

I am really really looking forward to the day I have a permanent obs! :mad2:
I had drama after drama on Saturday night. By the time I got everything sorted I got a single 30min sub and had lost all interest and was too tired to continue.

The 30min sub was excellent tho. Admittedly it's only at 480mm fl, but that's on a dodgy old EQ6 guided with a lowly QHY5, but the stars were perfectly round on 4.3 micron pixels, pretty happy with that.
800% zoom crop of NGC2100 from a Tarantula Neb widefield:

[rogerg]

OK so we've missed all the moonless skies and great astro events of the last week, but really now .. at least ... could the sky clear for maybe a night or two?!?!

[MrB]

You got your wish Roger, but.... damned burn-offs! :mad2:

[rogerg]

Ahh, is that what's wrong. I'm in Rome taking some pics with my observatory back home and was wondering why my weather station says it's clear yet the clarity isn't quite there. :question: Must be the smoke haze.

[MrB]

Yeah DOLA (or what ever new name they go by now) are taking advantage of the mild dry conditions, has screwed every clear night we've had this week tho :(

Edit: don't get me wrong, the burnoffs are a necessary evil (my uncle lost his house to the Parkerville/Stoneville fire), it's just frustrating during the beautiful clear run we've had.