Seeing Tonight - NSW Coast

[glend]

Looking at the spotless blue sky this afternoon bodes well for good Seeing tonight. With the New Moon approaching there will be plenty of dark hours, and the forecast looks good for several days. Get out there and enjoy it. :eyepop:

[xelasnave]

Yes the clouds have all come to Tabulam☺.
Alex

[xelasnave]

I do hope I get a run.
I have the 80mm ready to go and the old new☺ mount Bojan helped me with .... so I hope to be gathering data from two different setups.
Alex

[Startrek]

Just arrived at my holiday pad at Narrawallee for the week with a beautiful afternoon light nor’easter and sunny skies
CFN has a clear night until 2.00am so I can squeeze in 5 or 6 hours tonight and maybe 1 or 2 hours tomorrow night

[skysurfer]

I hope it will clear up here (south of Coffs Harbor) so I can do some observations and astrophotography.

[glend]

Very good night here. Just closed up the observatory. Imaging M83. Best night in awhile, with the humidity staying in the mid-70% range, which is good for being on the lake here.

[Allan_L]

YES. I wandered outside in the wee small hours myself to checkout the sky.
(first time for a while).
And I was pleasantly surprised at how clear and still it was.
Watched the planetary parade (Jupiter Saturn Venus and crescent moon rising in the East).
Brought a smile to my face. :)

[The Mekon]

The past couple of nights have been good around here. Saturday night I observed Sirius B with my 106mm for the first time, all previous attempts at this aperture had failed. Last night had the 18" out and both seeing and transparency were good.
All up this has not been a good summer for observing, but when conditions have been clear I have noticed a lack of humidity - have not used my dew controller for months.
Last night was the first night in a long time when a felt dew on the scope before midnight. Humidity registered 88%

[glend]

Perfectly clear blue sky all day long, here south of Newcastle. Do we dare to dream that this continues until tomorrow morning?
Even the Bureau 4-day chart looks good for tonight and Wednesday night.
I will not take my new scope out of the box until I am sure.;)

Astro dark from 8:20pm
Moon rise 10:47pm

[Allan_L]

I hope the weather god smiles on you tonight Glen. :thumbsup:
Any particular target I should already have been aware of? :question:

[glend]

Hi Al, thanks. Just hoping to do some first light images with the 71SDQ and the Nikon. Given the moon rise time I will be satisfied with Eta C, Omega C, etc. Just want to get a feel for the field of view.

[Saturnine]

I'm also praying that the skies stay clear tonight and early morning. According to ISS Transit Finder - https://transit-finder.com/results there will be an ISS / Lunar transit visible from a few kms up the coast from me at 6:09 am tomorrow, give or take a few seconds. What is interesting is that the moon and Jupiter will be close, well a few degrees apart, in the morning and if I was to be a few kms south of the lunar transit path, then it would be possible to see the ISS transit ( eclipse ) Jupiter. Not a common occurrence. Which event do I line up for, can't be in 2 places at the same time, even with my split personality.

[Saturnine]

Just checked on the map and the transit path runs from NW to SE and will cross the Three Sisters Lookout area in Katoomba at 6:09:05 am then continue SE passing over Camden then Wedderburn before getting to me on the coast at 6:09:19.37 am. Should still be dark enough as sunrise is not until 7:04 and nautical twilight begins at 6:10.
Could be some imaging fun to be had. Which camera, which scope and mount or a side by side rig with 2 scopes and cameras. It's all getting too complicated already.

[glend]

Good luck Jeff. Your dedicated to be chasing transit paths, it's a one chance thing. It would make a nice calendar cover shot.

[xelasnave]

Good luck Glen..just remember short subs and high ISO can be your friend☺.
I was surprised how 6400 worked with the Nikon recently.
I am looking forward to hear how you rate the new scope..it looks fantastic.
Alex

[glend]

Alex, et al, first test image is here:


https://www.astrobin.com/397533/0/

[glend]

Another clear blue sky day here, and tonight is looking very promising.
Astro dark from 20:17, and the Moon does not rise until after midnight (00:22).

Jeff how did your transit chase turn out down south?

[Saturnine]

Thanks for asking Glen but I wish you hadn't . From about 4:00 am cloud starting appearing to the south and by 6:00 the cloud front had passed overhead completely blocking any view of the moon and the transit. Briefly saw the ISS approaching from the NW through the remaining gap between the cloud front and the horizon. Was still clear further inland as my nephew got some video from Camden.
If I had've been more astute I should've gone inland , away from the coast but that would've meant getting caught up in peak hour traffic, not something I willingly would put myself in the midst of any more.

[glend]

:shrug:The forecast for this weekend looks excellent, according to the Bureau and the New Moon is tonight. A great opportunity, hopefully, for everyone on the Coast to get the scope out. But strap on the dew heater just in case.

Edit. This needs an update, given that it has been raining all morning here (after being clear overnight). The rain, after previous rain this week, is going to take some time to evaporate. The forecast says two or three sunny days from tomorrow (Sat), so I would watch your local humidity levels, especially if your near the water. I am thinking a min of one sunny day before I consider opening the Obs roof.

[Wavytone]

IMHO it’s a rerun of last weekend - cold front blowing through mid afternoon and it will blow its guts out all night, wind dropping Sunday morning.

Sunday night should be ok but I’m skeptical about Saturday night.

[Startrek]

My CFN app for Saturday and Sunday night in Sydney is currently awful ( see attached )
Varied amount of cloud cover but that can change over the next 12 hours or so
Here’s hoping it does

[glend]

Things seem to be coming together for a good night tonight. The warm sun is drying the ground out, current humidity is 47%. There is a slight northerly breeze with the Bureau suggesting it will swing around to North westerly this evening. Not a cloud in the sky.:thumbsup:

[Wavytone]

Yup it's all go here - aiming to be at Shipley Plateau, Blackheath by 5pm.

[xelasnave]

There was one very small cloud when I passed to the West of you today but it sure looked clear otherwise.
Hope you get another run with your new scope.
Alex

[xelasnave]

Its clear as a bell..is a bell clear..sound I guess...clear anyways...but a ten hour drive to get here and I dont know how I can set up as I am beat.
It is amazing how a long drive can be so exhausting.
I have dragged out the BWO and will probably settle for just some wide field.
Its been so cloudy that I didnt even think of potential targets...there is so much gear I may have to hope for another clear night tomorrow...I should have come up yesterday ...such a shame to miss what I think will be a clear night.
Alex

[xelasnave]

Had a run with the wide field set up but to tired to be accurate so tried some really high iso 12000 abouts☺ and 15 second exposure and so many darks the battery went flat..I just let them go for ages☺ so heaps of darks dithering see if these high isos can be used. I have some of the LMG and you cant even see it in the frame so I wonder if a stack will bring it out.
But so tired and never so happy to see a few clouds☺ its getting clear again but I have to get some sleep.
Alex

[glend]

Disappointing here tonight, i suspect that Trough line. It was clearish but the occasional high level cloud drifting over meant that the imaging plan was scrapped. I switched to visual for a session with the iStar 127mm f12.

[xelasnave]

The cat woke me at 3-30 to tell me to go outside and see how clear it was and check how beautiful Venus presents☺. Very nearly set up but was content to sit for a while and just gaze on the Milky Way...you could see everything. Nice.
Checked the subs and the noise was horrific but the darks also had heaps of noise so I hope to get something.
I am trying to get the wide field set up to produce results on very little time...part of its job can be to rush it oit in cloud breaks and grab maybe 30 minutes and hopefully produce a decent result.
I have 100 darks to go with half as many subs so it should be interesting☺.
Gotta get some naps in today in the hope tonight will be clear and be able to run all night.

Alex

[glend]

The Bureau seems to think the next three or four nights might be pretty good, and that pesky Moon is starting to get out of the way. It doesn't rise until 9:13pm tonight, and with astro dark so early now, you should get a good couple of hours. Each night now will have the Moon get more out of the picture, so fingers crossed that the onshore breeze is gone for awhile, it is swinging around now.
Alex I would not expect much up Tabulam way, it seems like it has been cloudy up there all week. My son was camping on a property near Tamworth over Easter and they had terrible weather.

[Startrek]

Might get a few hours imaging tonight down near Ulladulla, CFN has some coastal cloud shifting away by 10.00pm and clear until morning but like you mentioned a waning moon is up but won’t bother me until midnight
Anzac night is looking great, clear all night , but have to head back to Sydney in the morning for Anzac Day and the youngest daughters getting married on the weekend

[xelasnave]

I drove down today and thought of you as I passed Port M and noticed the clouds.
I noticed the sky could be clear here so I packed up and rushed down☺

Alex

[glend]

Alex, i am at Lake Macquarie south of Newcastle, not Port Macquarie. I would not want to live up there.

[Startrek]

The cloud hasn’t arrived yet as predicted by CFN
Currently imaging Centaurus A galaxy and just clicked over 35 x 4 minute subs with 10 to go , meridian flip shortly
Moon glare starting to show up on the histogram and the display as well
A pretty good night so far !

[xelasnave]

Sorry about that.
Well it seemed clear around there when I passed by.
Alex

[glend]

Looks like another excellent night shaping up. Moon rise after 10pm, light northerly breeze here and lowish humidity at 50%.