Timelapse: night of the big Dobs...

[alocky]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/photon_collector/16570634376/

Barry, Tom and myself had a pleasant evening chasing faint fuzzies in Centaurus and some not so faint ones in Virgo and Coma with a 28, a 25 and an 18. The atmosphere was quite cooperative with both the big scopes cooling down quite fast, and being able to run at very high powers (>600x) for some nice clear views of Encke's gap in Saturn's rings.
We managed to see the Forcade Figuera object (ESO270-G17) in the 25" too - always a sign of a good night. Anyway - all done under the watchful eye of the D800 taking 15" images at 14mm@f2.8, iso 3200.
Right near the end of the video a bright object (mag 4 ish) appears near the SCP and travels downward relatively slowly, taking the best part of an hour to cover a few degrees. Any ideas what that was? My guess is an asteroid.
Also, the change in the skyglow during the 8 hours of the video is quite remarkable.
Thanks for looking,
Andrew

[h0ughy]

you needed a flash so we could see whose on the ladder ;) nice one

[gaa_ian]

That is certainly my idea of a good night out. There are only a handful of people here in FNQ with scopes that size. Brings back memories of IISAC, just wish I could of been there this year ! Oh well soon enough I will have my own 16" Light Bucket, to replace the 18" left behind in Gove with GAA !
I certainly miss the views of such objects as Omega Centuri at that aperture it seems to shift and move like a 3 dimensional mirage. How far apart were the images taken ?

[sn1987a]

That's me at the back screwing around trying to figure out wtf what's wrong with this pos servocat? (nothing apparently once I read the changing the wifi channels instructions a bit futher).:D

Asteroid Alocky 2015BT1? :P

[sn1987a]

A couple of snaps with the iphone 4S, it was a tad windy when I took them so they're a bit unsteady.

[alocky]

15 second exposures, taken at 15s intervals - continuous coverage.
Cheers,
Andrew.

[iceman]

Nice night! Nice work!

[Phil Hart]

That's very high quality footage Andrew.. camera and lens working nicely for you and well processed. Variation in airglow looks good too. When you give up Big Dob observing there's still a career for you in timelapse :-).

Without much knowledge or thinking about it very hard I'd still say the bright object is a very long polar orbiting satellite having a bit of a flare. That would be an unusually bright asteroid and an unnatural change in brightness.

Asteroid that bright would be very easy to identify. You can try here:
http://cgi.minorplanetcenter.net/cgi-bin/checkmp.cgi

I'm sure there was a page where you could more easily list your field and observing time and have it list objects in that field, but the page above should get you there.

This page helps you identify satellites that can be confused with natural objects:
http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/SpaceJunk/SpaceJunk.html

Phil

[alocky]

Thanks Mike - it's nights like these that make the following days after no sleep manageable!



Thanks for your kind words Phil! I'll have a look on that link too - although I suspect you are absolutely correct. I hadn't done any processing on that video, that's pretty much straight out of the D800's time lapse function. I might have a play in Photoshop, apparently it can do quite a bit.
Cheers,
Andrew.

[PeterM]

Andrew that is inspiring footage, brilliant in every way. Conveys so much about why we love this hobby. Amateur astronomers, big scopes, video, dark skies and all under the best part of the world for our hobby. Should be shown in all classrooms, might just inspire the next generation of amateurs we need so badly in this hobby. Well done!

[alocky]

Thanks Pete - really kind words. And if it wasn't for your inspiration, patience and generosity when I was a snotty 12 year old I wouldn't have a big dob and be chasing Sn at all hours!
The footage is free to anyone who wants to use it to inspire!
Cheers,
Andrew

[chuckywiz]

You definitely have to let me know in advance next time your going out... after seeing that im sick with guilt i missed the message. looks awesome.. Great work

[multiweb]

Is that the homunculus in the third shot?

[MrB]

Very nice Andrew!
One of these days (years) I'll get around to finishing my 16" and join you guys.

[sn1987a]

Yep, it looks a lot better than that in the EP, like holding a picture of the famous Hubble shot away from you at a distance of I dunno say 10 meters or so.
:D