Virtual Star Party - Tonight through this week.

[glend]

With conditions looking great for tonight (at least in NSW) and the next few nights, how about a Virtual Star Party? Get your gear organised, whether visual or imaging, and let's all look up together and pretend were at Wiruna, Lostock, Coolah, Bretti, Katoomba Airfield, Qld Astrofest, etc. Provide the refreshments of your choice. Of course this has to happen from your backyard, be it from a tripod or observatory. Share your local event photos in this thread.
:thumbsup:

Moon does not rise until 9:48pm.

As always local conditions may not be the same as the wider forecast, but join in when you can.

[mynameiscd]

Hi Glen,
Fantastic idea
I've been attending virtual star parties every day on Twitch which is a a steaming channel set up for gamers.
A few guys have set up telescopes online and are streaming their own channels.
A couple of RASAs and a planewave to control but so much interaction and help with imaging.
Just trying to get fast internet to my scope and Ill start steaming from my house.
Cheers
Andy

[Atmos]

I’m just waiting for more clear skies so maybe I’ll have to stream in with someone else for the foreseeable future haha

[Allan_L]

Hmmm! Clouds!

[Outcast]

All set for the VSP here in Cairns...

Who's bringing the snacks? :D

[rrussell1962]

What a wonderful idea! Cloudy at the moment in Brisbane, but I hope to join you tomorrow night.

[RyanJones]

This will be my first star party, all be it virtual.

Great idea and maybe something we can carry though in the future.

All setup and waiting for the cloud to clear.

[jahnpahwa]

Still borrowing gear (new set up should be ready for next weekend!), but I just got in from a nice hour in Canberra.



I actually got a massive kick out of it!



First time positive ID on Carina Nebula and Eta Carina, as well as Orion Nebula. I'm using a celestron astromaster 70, and am finding that I can see about 90% as much in my nikon monarch binoculars, but with a much wider field of view, which is helping me find stuff. Also, I have a wide angle (24mm F2.8) lens on my DLSR, and was able juuuuust make out the dark vee shape on an image i shot with the camera lying on my deck face up with a 30sec iso 800 exposure.



Thanks for the idea, and for the heads up that the moon rise was as late as it is... I need to keep an eye on that, it made for really great conditions.

[mynameiscd]

Took a little while to set up
Crystal clear tonight in western victoria.
My target tonight is the running chicken nebula. Already got 20 x 5 mins and going for 30 x 5 mins as well. The moon is just coming up so Ill see how it affect the next session. After my darks I might get some Ha data and make a real night of it.
Im pretty warm in my little shower tent about to have a hot chocolate, music is cranking.
A Couple of screenshots from PHD and Backyard EOS. PHD is guiding all night under an arc second so far.
Ill get streaming happening soon but need a wifi repeater to boost the signal out here.
Keep this star party going.
Should have something processed by tomorrow night
Forgot to take a shot of my setup so heres an old one
Cheers
Andy

[glend]

Great reporting tonight folks! Good turn out on short notice. Sorry about the clouds for you Al, it was clear at my place when I rolled back the roof. However, at 5pm I thought it was going to be scrubbed, but then the high stuff cleared off as it usually does on this sort of day.
I used the 8" f5 Newt tonight, purely visual this time. Dew arrived about the same time as the moon rise, so I closed up then. Tomorrow night I will swap over to my 127mm iStar R30 TCR f12 for chasing doubles and triplets.
Refreshments amounted to the requisite Port bottle on the desk, with a Cheese platter. I could see the possum watching me from his perch in the tree behind my back fence, his eyes reflecting back my red headlight. He would smell that cheese i am sure. Luckily the Obs is possum proof, so far.:lol:

Andy, that shower tent brings back memories, I used one like that at Bretti a few times as my office.

[Outcast]

Well... a few hiccups getting started. First time using the AZ-EQ6 in Alt/Az mode, let alone with two scopes fitted...

Apparently one should read manuals before setting up... had my mount orientated incorrectly at startup... frustrating hour or so trying to get alignments done & trying to figure out why I was constantly way, way off in Altitude...

Bit of assistance from Alex... bit of googling... bit of RTFM & bit of a switcharoo with some gear & hey presto... 2 star alignment done & then actually landing on targets... woohoo....

Got some nice viewing in tonight, mainly around SC... Jewel Box, Eta Carina, Glob cluster.... maybe a very, very vagueish view of Centaurus A...

Went looking for some other things with guidance from Alex but, no joy...

Loving the Intes... so, so contrasty... got a nice close in look at Homunculous in Eta Carina... lovely...

80mm refractor gave some nice views too... lovely to look at the glob in widefield & then switch to the mak to see it much more detail...

Whilst a bit of a frustrating start, turned out to be a good night's viewing...

[RyanJones]

Clouded out.... then not.... then clouded out again. Not all was lost on the night though. On a recommendation by Emuhead about reassigning my asi120mm as my main camera on the ASIAIR, I did my first PA via the box of gold and Id have to say it’s fantastic! By the time I’d focused my DSLR and switched the 120 back to being my guide cam though, the cloud rolled in.

[glend]

Another promising night coming up. Moon rise at 10:43pm.

[mynameiscd]

Hi Glend,
Pretty cloudy here tonight but last night was clear until 1am.
Might finish some processing but here's a work in progress from last night.
Clear skies to all
Andy

[Outcast]

Clouds have rolled in up here in FNQ... :sadeyes:

Rain forecast for tomorrow...

Hopefully will clear up again soon... good luck & enjoy for all those with clear skies...:)

[Sunfish]

Looks clear here now in Thirroul. Trying to dither the monkey again, NGC 2467

[DJT]

Great thread idea


It’s clear out here in the Barrington tops.

Carrying on with imaging the antennae which I started the other night.

[glend]

I have just finished up with my Double and Triple Tour for tonight. Hope everyone is having a good evening and clear skies.

Scope in tonight's photo is the iStar 127mm f12 R30 TCR.

[Sunfish]

I should be using this stay at home project now I have added pipe bracing , but I am a little nervous handling the scope on a step ladder. You can see the top of the step ladder at the bottom of the frame. I think I need a platform for this.

Same scope and mount tonight on the small pier so the monkey just climbed into the trees. On to Centaurus perhaps.

[glend]

Holy cow Ray! Is that mount held on the bracket with a C-clamp?

[Sunfish]

Err no. It is bolted on with some 8mm bolts to the 8mm plates. The G clamp is just to hold it while I get the bolts in .

It is a long way up. Need some scaffolding really or build a platform. The picking ladders with platform are too expensive.

I have some tube braces from the slab up to the top of the pier to control vibration now.

[Sunfish]

Actually using the short pier tonight . More my size and a little more solid.

[rrussell1962]

Nice evening yesterday. First look of the year at the galaxies in Virgo and Coma.

[Camelopardalis]

Great idea Glen :)

Was nice and clear here last night, with the odd fluffy drifting in off the ocean.

With the Moon just below the roofline, I had a quick live stacking session with a few globs in Ophiuchus and Scorpius.

Here's M19...10 mins of 15s shots. Living in the 'burbs, light pollution is a bit of a nightmare so I used a R-IR planetary filter (Astronomik ProPlanet 642) to try and minimise it.

[glend]

Dunk, we can always find something in the sky, although I will concede that Bribane is a challenge. That filter seems to work ok. Do you have any images with high HA content, where this filter might really help?.
For those interested in that filters landmass, details are here:

https://www.bintel.com.au/product/astronomik-proplanet-642-bp-ir-pass-filters/?v=322b26af01d5

[JA]

Clouds in Melbourne are going strong. It will be a while before we southerners can join the party.

Best
JA

[Camelopardalis]

I do indeed...see attached. Obviously, a bit more challenging than a reasonably bright glob, but still not too bad for 10 minutes. FWIW, my dark subtraction didn't work so well on this one :shrug:

I should add that my newt dewed up at some point and I don't exactly know when. M19 was my first target and was quite low in the sky at the time, whereas NGC6357 was later and higher.

[Camelopardalis]

And then there is the obligatory Lagoon...

Stars are a bit off in this one, must have had a few frames that skewed it (was using just the average stacking)

[mynameiscd]

Hi all,
Cloudy again tonight so just data again to play with.
If anyone is interested i've heard the best reviews on this filter.
https://optcorp.com/products/radian-telescopes-2-inch-triad-ultra-filter.
They used it in Times Square and imaged the ring nebula!
Pretty expensive but its 4 filters in 1 (H-beta, OIII, H-alpha, and SII Band Passes). Cuts through any light pollution.
Anyway have a great night outside tonight and keep sharing.
Cheers
Andy

[Sunfish]

Beautiful clear night on the coast at Thirroul.
More monkeying around on NGC 2467

Dithering at 3 seems to reduce the pattern noise in an hour of Ha but not there yet.

V1 : RHaGB AND V2 : HaGB +R as L

[glend]

Well Andy, sorry you are clouded out. Thanks for your good wishes.

Hmmm, that is a pretty expensive filter. Cuts through any LP eh? And Hydrogen Beta and OIII are both in the visible band at Blue and Green (turquoise) wave lengths respectively. Perhaps the lights were out in Times Square. Don't believe everything you read in ads.

[glend]

Ray what camera are you using? I actually prefer the second one. I used to use an extra Ha layer as L but dial opacity back abit. There is always alot of artistic expression available in narrowband. Don't be afraid to experiment.

[jahnpahwa]

Had a clear window for about an hour just now. I upgraded my set up to include a chair, which made a world of difference :)

Just used the binoculars tonight, which i think are nikon monark 5 8x42. I lingered on the southern pleiades and omicron velorum cluster, both looked nice, the latter in a much darker part of the sky.
I took my glasses off and used the focus on the bins to overcome my rubbish eyesight and i am glad to report that it was a much better experience :)
Was sipping on a single barrel buffalo trace whiskey, starting to feel good to have something warm.


In other news, I've got tracking numbers for all parts of the new kit, should all arrive tomorow and hopefully I'll get far enough with setup in the arvo to take a look at something and report back this time tomorrow:thumbsup:

[Sunfish]

Thanks Glen,
Using an uncool asi 1600 which last night was at 5 degrees with a little home made heat sink.

The additional L layer is a little more interesting I agree but as I am using Nebulosity to combine , the result is not very polished. Not sure how to change opacity unless I recombine in PS but it could be useful.

[glend]

Yeah Ray, I used Photoshop for my layering which gives good control over that. The 1600 should be pretty clean, even uncooked.

[glend]

Sound like a nice way to spend the evening, a good chair is essential. What is the new gear your waiting for? I am waiting as well, for my 8" Classic Cassegrain which is due here tomorrow. Hope to have it working tomorrow night's session.

[jahnpahwa]

oh, nice! I hope you can get it happening in time for tomorrow night :)

I've got a skywatcher 8" F5 newt and HEQ5 mount coming, along with a baader hyperion zoom eyepiece, T-ring for my camera and a bunch of other nic-nacs.

I've never had any kind of telescope before, so the set up (polar aligning the mount in particular) may take me a while to get the hang of. Still, I reckon if it comes to it, I'll hug the newt like a bag pipe and point it at something just to say I've used it :)

[glend]

JP, I have an 8" f5 Newt, they are a very forgiving scope, a good choice as a general all rounder. I assume you have done some reading on aligning a mount, but if not there should be instructions with it. If you get stuck just raise it here and we can help you out. Good luck.

[PaulSthcoast]

Hi everyone,

I am in day 2 of self isolation and decided to join the party.

A word of thanks to all those who have sold items to me
over the past 14 months, you may well see your old gear
being given new light though this thread.

My rig for tonight.

Orion was my target, images to follow soon.

An update of things...

The night was wonderful and it was great to share some communication
with a few other members over the hours who also spent the time enjoying it.

Had some Issues with PA, but worked with what I had, and it was a great
opportunity just to get out and try new things.

One sub added for a sample of field of view.

M42, The Great Orion nebulae.

Paul.

[mynameiscd]

Hi Glen
I didn't read the add I watched the footage by Steven Swancoat (filmmaker) and what David Nagler (Televue) , Dustin Gibson (OPT telescopes), Trevor Jones (Astrobackyard) have said about this filter.
Its like doing narrow band imaging but instead of 4 filter changes just 1 change. Also you technically get 4x the imaging time as there is only 1 filter.
For mono people are using it a a luminance channel.
I was surprised about the Times Square thing too but after listening to podcasts and seeing footage of the outreach programs I have changed my mind. The first time they set up they got closed down by the Anti Terrorism Squad because they forgot to notify anyone about setting up a heap of telescopes and imaging gear. The next time they did the right thing and got the paperwork lodged. Hundreds of people who new nothing about the sky had to pick their jaws of the pavement and kept checking the scopes to see if they were really seeing correct.
Anyway hope you all had a great veiwing last night. Might get a quick one early tonight before the clouds come back.
Cheers to all.
Andy

[xelasnave]

I have been out the last two night just with the DSLR. First night a fail as I did not notice the camera was at F16 and that didn't work well.
Last night tried a part of the Milky Way just to get things started.
Too many trees in the way of any decent targets but happily I am now waiting for a guy to come and cut down some trees.
I left important bits of the heq5 5 mount in Sydney so trying to sort out the old eq6..unfortunately the pier is a smidge out and I am a whisker away from good polar alignment ... I can fix it by making the holes in the base plate elongated..only need a couple of mm but main game is clearing some trees and too be able to see CSP.
Processing stuff from last night which is just stars but great to be out there at least.
Great idea Glen I hope to log in tonight and join the virtual star party.
I hope everyone are happy and healthy.
Alex

[glend]

Thanks for checking in Alex. I hope you get it sorted out. Trees? I thought they had all burnt down in fire, or had been cutback to clear around your habitat? Is your observatory away from the house?

[xelasnave]

The observatory is as far away from the house as you can get on a square one hundred acre block..I have to go onto the main road to drive to the house. It feels like next door and me in small does is all they get.

The van observatory is by a nice dam and although trees were cleared for the site others need to go.

Plus a tree fell on my fire pump and into the dam so I need to sort that out.

Been very busy with a list of projects too long to mention..so I need an astronomy break.
Stacking 250 25 second subs at 3200 I so for a laugh with 50 dark frames just to see how it goes, of just what seemed an uninteresting patch and have not checked via the planetarium so it's like a discovery thing..a little fun.
I am outta the wheel chair and have acceptable mobility.
Alex

[Sunfish]

After my target went behind a tree and the moon came up I caught 45minutes of RGB high in the sky. Interesting how bringing up Centaurus always infuses the image with a brown glow but loses some star colour. A little fun and I should try some Ha on this.

[Sunfish]

Thanks Andy.

Interesting.

I suppose if you already have a great fast scope and camera, another $1000 US to get a result with less effort locked down in the city may not be too much.

Too much for me though.

Cheers
Ray

[mynameiscd]

Hi Ray
A bit too expensive for me also and no need as its normally bortle 1 here when the clouds open.
If light pollution keeps going down the same path filters like this may be the only way to image in the cities.

Good luck in getting Centaurus A in Ha

Cheers
Andy

[xelasnave]

A bootifull night here. Clear reasonable seeing.
Doing a ruff polar align just with the camera pointing at CSP as I am going to try some wide field ..maybe ETA at 200 mm. Basically sorting things. But so nice to be out here and all this new sky with the trees gone.
Alex

[glend]

Thanks for the update Alex. Hopefully more of us will be able to get started tonight as well. I am just waiting for some high cloud to disappear, but am confident it won't take too much longer.

[jahnpahwa]

Well, it was a decent early evening sky here in Canberra again. I was hoping to be out with new setup but ama few pieces short.


A couple of eyepieces did arrive, so i had some fun comparing the stock 20mm eyepiece in the loaner scope to the 13mm super plossl GSO and the 8-24 baader zoom. It was a good time! While looking at orion neb with the 13mm a satellite of some kind streaked past and i was able to follow it and adjusted focus to pin it before it went behind my house.


In terms of comparing eyepieces, the zoom was fun and the 13mm good, but it will take some time before i can really see a difference. The eye relief on both was a huge step up, though! Found the baader really comfortable.



Hope evwryone else got some good viewing and/or imaging time in!


JP

[xelasnave]

Well it's been a great night, sorting out little things, be lucky if my photos turn out, but great to out here.
Tried the polemaster and it catches the top of the wall...maybe I can raise the mount to clear it tomorrow, the are a few threads on the bolts to raise it so we shall see.
Alex

[Camelopardalis]

Yeah better night here than last night. I even took a few guided images :screwy:

[glend]

I have had a good night finally, as the cloud disappeared as hoped. Went out at 2:30am to begin testing my 8" Classical Cassegrain. The scope did not disappoint, and collimation was perfect, no tweaking required at all. Did star tests in various attitudes across the meridian and it was rock steady. Extra focus rings were perfect. So glad that was good.
Moved onto the line of planets in the eastern sky, starting with Jupiter, Saturn and the Mars. Best non- Barlowed views I have had, and detail was great, even pin point moons around them. Focus popped in fine. I was using a 2" 30mm Superview EP, then 20mm Superview, and 15mm Superview; equivalent of 81x, 121x, and 162x. I did try a 2x Televue Barlow but the sky conditions did not allow any improvement in detail. It was 17C with 74% humidity. In the hour and half I spent at the scope no fogging of the optics at all, it did certainly feel muggy with no breeze. A great first light result and I am very happy with this new scope.

[glend]

Looks like another clear night here in NSW. Let's keep the VSP going. It sounds like Alex will be ready to go tonight, after his chainsaw mods to the observatory. Don't forget the comfortable chair and refreshments. Photos please.

[The Mekon]

I am joining tonight. Last night the seeing and transparency were dreadful here in the southern highlands of NSW. Maybe better tonight. So for double star observers the target will be omega (2) Leo. Mag 5/7 at less than one arc second, let us know how you go, with scope details and magnification.

[xelasnave]

The clouds have been unkind.
Alex

[glend]

John, that target is blocked by a tree to the north of my location. Care to nominate an alternate to the east or south?

[Sunfish]

Clear here in Thirroul but very windy. PHD is unhappy. Not the night to try out a 2.1m high pier . Trying some different settings on the usual targets.

[glend]

I have been clouded out tonight I think. Too bad the day was so nice. Looking at the sat photo from the Bureau it looks like a front is moving up the coast.

[jahnpahwa]

Tonight i joined the list of people to have held a glimmer of hope that their first night with new set up would run smoothly, only to head inside with tail firmly between legs.


Got the last few pieces (incl mount) off my set up this arvo and did my best to get ready for a night of wonder and amazement. I think i did some things well, some obviously not so well because after about 15 tries, the alignment on my mount only seemed to be getting worse. I switched it off, put the camera on, took a few 30s exposures at iso 800 and 1600... blackness.



BUT there were definitely some positives too. I loved it. I didn't lose anything. I used almost everything. There were a loot of firsts. I didn't break anything (that i know of). I felt like i was part of the real crew, eventhough i wasn't actually getting anything done.



Anyway, i have a thousand questions, I'll put them in my beginners equipment thread ����

[Sunfish]

Bad luck with the gear. Those sorts of things happen.

My mount refused to connect with eqmod so I tried the hand control.
Power but no connection. A lot of jiggling and some abrading of the RJ port wires seemed to get it working but time was lost. Second hand gear and living by the coast.

I was able to test some camera settings in the wind at least before closing time.

[The Mekon]

Again seeing was poor down my way, but transparency better. I have a one hour window for 2 Leo, between the trees as it transits the meridian. An easier target for you all may be Mu Velorum - much brighter than 2 Leo, quite tight and needs a reasonable sky. It is one of my "test" stars for conditions.

[glend]

John, is that double also known as Alherem in Vela?

SAO 222321


RA 10h 47m 37.97s
DEC -49 deg, 31 min, 31.1s

[glend]

Tonight is shaping up to what looks like the best night of this week. Let's keep the Star Party going.
Tonight I will tackle John's Double Challenge first off. For anyone using Sky Safari the Double in question is shown as Alherem in Vela (southern sky). SAO number is in the post below if you need it.

[Outcast]

Cloudy & Rainy in FNQ since my successful night on the first day of the VSP...

Same again tonight...:(

All of you with clear skies, good luck with your endeavours & enjoy...:)

[rrussell1962]

Clouded out last night and tonight in Brisbane's outer Western suburbs. Thursday night, for some reason, I decided to observe all the J Herschel doubles in Leo and Cancer. I packed up at the end of the session thinking that John Herschel had the patience of a Saint.

[Sunfish]

Does look clear early in the night. See how things develop in Thirroul. Clouds are on their way I think.

[jahnpahwa]

Yep, I'm in again, best night so far in the can, and I've got polar alignment happening. Very psyched :) will be having a Kloud and more whiskey at some point

[Camelopardalis]

No luck with clouds last night and tonight, and it’s been raining on and off all day. Tomorrow night looks more promising though...

[glend]

Ok John, I have managed to split that Double in Vela (to the Haas figure eight criteria). The sky is swimming around abit and it will get better later i am sure. But i have them separating at 162x with my 8" f12 Cassegrain.

Continuing with other targets,

I will return to Alherem later tonight when higher magnification might be feasible.

[TwistedRider]

:cloudy:
Apologies to all Victorians.
I've been buying eyepieces this week.

[xelasnave]

Out having a run. Lots of moisture. The mount needs to rotate to the South a fraction of a degree but it's close enough for a wide field.
Having a great time.
Alex

[glend]

Well I am exhausted and cold but have pretty much finished everything I intended to do tonight to finish testing the new scope, and further calibrate my mount to give me spot on pointing accuracy with this new long focal length scope.
The 8" f12 Classical Cassegrain is great for splitting Doubles, Triplets, and obviously all bright objects like the planets, and it even managed to show me Pluto tonight. Great planetary reach and should be pretty good at planetary imaging using frame stacking, when I get to that. It also does a pretty good job on bright compact clusters, with a 30mm 2" eyepiece. Not so good on anything dim and nebulous, so galaxies, Omega Centauri, and the usual nebula targets like M8, M20, M16, etc. But i do have my f5 Newt for that sort of work which is where it shines.
I will be getting some rest for the next few nights but maybe back out by the New Moon, giving the Newt a run. Hope the good weather continues for those that have enjoyed it this week. :zzz:

[PaulSthcoast]

Hi everyone,

so it was day 4 of self isolation, and the night was looking promising.

The wind had come up, so I opted for a refractor.

Target was Orion again.

This time using a modded DSLR for imaging.

It was good to be communicating with members who were also out
enjoying the sky, sharing texts and such through the night.

Images were taken using Astro Photography Tools.

I have posted a sub ISO 6400 30 seconds in the hope of having
some insight as to the strange `7` shapes in the stars.

I am thinking it may be the lack of guiding at that point ?

A Batinov mask was used to as focusing.

Thanks for looking.

Paul.

[jahnpahwa]

Round 2 of me vs aligning my scope was a small step forward. I did a star alignment (sirius, hadar, canopus), was 6 to 10 deg out. Did another star alignment (sirius, canopus, rigel and was at under a degree in both! So did one more (sirius, canopus, alpha centuri) and it was all looking good, both sirius abd canopus were in my finder field after slewing, but to alpha centuri put me way, waaaay past (35deg or so) until i was actually looking at Menkent. A similar thing happened the night before, it seems aiming at stars toward the SCP throws the the thibg massively.

Is there an obvious thing going on here? I'm still motivated to sort it out, but I'm wondering if i should go back to reading some books and so on until i can meet the CAS guys and have someone go through it. It seems so simple! True sputh and inclination are both locked in, it seems fine along one axis... anyway, shout out if you have any ideas, otherwise i will probably sit tonight out :)


JP

[glend]

Paul, so I take it your photo is a single exposure of 30 seconds, is that correct. If so I have two possibilities: one that wind you mentioned may have gusted the rig during the exposure. Two, it was bumped during the exposure.

I suggest a couple of things: take more exposures so that you can cull bad ones out and stack the good ones to build the signal. There are Image grading apps that can run through a set of images and score them in terms of quality. Or you do it visually by looking at each one. This allows you to build an image with only clean sub exposures.
I would drop the ISO, as Orion Nebula is very bright photographically speaking, and the higher the ISO the greater the likelyhood of 'burning out the core detail', and usually the greater the noise. Try 800 or 1200, and take twenty or so sub exposures, then check them visually, then stack them using DSS (Deep Sky Stacker). That should give you a pretty good result.

[doppler]

Hi, I only ever do a two star alignment and I have found that its best to pick two stars close and in the same hemisphere. Sirius and Canopus are good for me atm.

Rick

[PaulSthcoast]

Thanks Glen,

great advise re the imaging exposures.

I took many images during the night, and varied the exposure
times as well as ISO.

Agreed, it does produce a very bright core, especially at such a
high ISO for that long an exposure.

I seemed to have had a `sweet spot` of 10 seconds at ISO 1600,
that night, but wanted to see what I could get the camera to provide over every available setting,
as it was the first time I had used it.

I think you are correct, it would have been a gust of wind that
gave me the unusual image, as there are none to be found in other
images taken.

Though it does look like a fleet of starships or such in flight across the sky...…?

The Celestron Skyportal was doing a fairly good job keeping things
where they should have been, with only a slight amount of drift occurring.

A word of thanks to Turbo Pascale (Rob) and Startrek (Martin), for their posts on finding Solar Noon,
it was a great help with alignment.

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=181418

I appreciate your reply.

Paul.

[jahnpahwa]

Thanks Rick! I take it this doesn't then mran that your scope is only aligbed for that hemisphere? I'll lock it in on those two tonight and see how i go:thumbsup:

[doppler]

The third star just seemed to mess things up for me, keeping it simple seems to work better when using the handset, the third star is there to try and compensate for physical misalignment between scope and mount "cone error". Another thing to try is upping the magnification to get the star closer to the center of the eyepiece, or use an illuminated cross hair eyepiece.
Rick

[jahnpahwa]

Awesome, thanks. I'll do that, will use the zoom eyepiece to bring it in to centre step by step.

[croweater]

Hi JP, I think some of the guys centre the star and then defocus to make a 'large circle" which makes it easier to judge when you are centred. Hope this makes sense.
Cheers, Richard :)

[Sunfish]

I agree the 7 shape is classic movement usually for me at the beginning or end of an exposure. Sometimes mirror slap without a remote mirror lift and delay setting or leaving a DSLR on live view can do this , or just not leaving a settle time between shots.

Very clear last night here and no wind and so I tested some Ha and Oiii gain settings on my favourite target . Cloudy now.

[rrussell1962]

I'm up for this tonight. The clouds have cleared in Brisbane. A nice evening of well known doubles and Showpiece DSO's with my Skywatcher 130mm F5 Newt on Star Discovery mount.

[The Mekon]

Well done Glen. Any detection at 165X indicates sound optics on the Cass. Last night I observed this star split at 175x in my 106AT. Seeing was the best so far this month, though not quite sub arc second. Tonight is looking a little more clouded.

[PaulSthcoast]

Well....

it had to happen, its pouring here...…...again....

Might be a good night to look at data and get my head around
stacking and processing now I have some images to use.

Does this mean the Party is over.....
or just beginning ?


Paul.

[glend]

Paul, I think we can call this one over. That rain and cloud is moving up the coast and the forecast for the next couple of days does not look good for astronomy.

Anyone with something to post up from tonight, please go ahead.

I will sign off.
Thanks to all that participated and we have to do it again soon. Cheers

:thanx:

[Camelopardalis]

The clouds cleared here at around 6:30pm, much to my surprise :eyepop:

Of course, that meant I was a little delayed getting going, but the scope is "proper" imaging :lol:

[xelasnave]

Still banging away here. Been going non stop since dark. Just wide field which I like. I hope it holds as good as this for tomorrow as I think I can have the scopes set up tomorrow. An early trip to Bunnings for a few things which should see both piers lined up. Bit of grinding bit more fibre glass should all work.
Alex

[PaulSthcoast]

Thanks Glen,

and everyone that participated.

It was a great thread.

I not only enjoyed it, but also learnt a lot from fellow Ice In Space members along the way.

What a great Community we have here, and amongst all that is happening
with our World and the current events, it was wonderful to be part of something special.

Keep well, stay safe.

Paul.

[jahnpahwa]

Sounds like such a nice day, Alex! Hope it all goes smoothly mate :thumbsup:
I inched further toward a good set up last night, had a decent alignment done, could slew to stars and see them in my 48deg FOV 24mm EP, so thats alright. The clouds came through as soon as I had confirmed that it was good, but still, I was happy. I think I got a quick look at NGC3368 toward the north at around 9:30, though by the time I grabbed my barlow to get in closer the clouds had come across.

Thanks to everyone who has given me tips on my set up. I agree with Paul, feeling really lucky to have a community like this!

[xelasnave]

Spent so much time on the eq6 mount yesterday and it is still a whisker off.
Worse still the eq5 is to low for polemater so today rebuilding the pier by extending it 5 inches higher...so lots of fun..astronomy all day and all night..just the way I like it.
Alex

[JA]

I enjoyed watching a 5 minute ISS flyby high and very bright in the sky over Melbourne last night (~85 deg. max. altitude)

Best
JA

[xelasnave]

I guess it being a week night the party is over.

Well not for me. It's a great night perfect seeing and I finally got the 80mm running and working on Eta only blue to go and I will call it a night.

Alex

[glend]

Good on you Alex. I have been out as well, just finished trying to chase down the Encke Gap on Saturn's rings. I am glad you are enjoying perfect Seeing, too much moisture in the air here (88% humidity right now) but it was in the 30% range all day long), that is a byproduct of living on the water.
I am turning in now. Hope you have the Blue finished now. Later.:hi:

[xelasnave]

Another nice night...chasing the chicken..but I was too tired to function very efficiently and turned in at midnight.
Processing now but doesn't look much.
Alex

[Camelopardalis]

Yeah clouds came in off the coast about 12:30, so that was a good time to go to bed :lol:

[xelasnave]

Well I missed the chickens head last night so I am doing it all again tonight. It is a fantastic night here...so far.
Anyone else having any luck?
Alex

[RyanJones]

Out again tonight adding to the 7hrs I already have on NGC 6188. Hoping to have a clean 10 hrs after extraction of the lesser subs. Fingers crossed

[Startrek]

Sensational night , seeing is superb but cloud is due to roll in at 11pm so capturing M68 and NGC 5139 Omega Centauri with the 8” f5 newt
A glob night tonight , galaxies will have to wait until we get a clear night through to the early hours

[glend]

I agree that the Seeing has been good tonight, around here. I used the early dark hours to tune my polar alignment a bit more exactly, and had a go at splitting a few tighter doubles, like Porrima and Menkent, using the 8" f5 Newt - which pretty much confirms the Seeing is ok. Going to get some sleep and then back out at 3am to have a go at the Encke Gap on Saturn's A-ring, if the Seeing holds up till then, and no clouds appear.

[jakob]

Great night!
Managed to polar align and work out Camera settings
It has been a long time or my brain is loosing data.
A bit of dew but nice and clear, lots of lights around me with massive new developments in North-west Sydney.

[glend]

Well it's nearly 4am and I have just come in from the observatory, in my quest to observe the Encke Gap in Saturn's A-ring. The Seeing did hold up as i had hoped from earlier tonight, and i feel i was very close to seeing it at 167x on my 8" f5 Newt (12mm Plossl EP with my Televue 2x barlow); but alas it was just out of reach ( and I had no more power to throw on). Not even averted vision would tease it out. I was concentrating on the top and bottom points of the rings in their current orientation, as that is where the seems to be the best chance. Perhaps if I had the 8" f12 Cassegrain on the mount i might have been able to push the magnification more tonight, but I Don't like changing over scopes in the dark, if I can avoid it. The sky certainly seemed like it could handle more magnification.
As we move towards the opposition on the 20th of July, Saturn will get larger, and that will help a lot, provided I can get this Seeing conditions again at that time. Fingers crossed.
Great night anyway, such stability in the upper atmosphere has been rare lately.

[xelasnave]

OK Roll Call:)

Looks like it is going to be another great night.

It just now occurred to me..I really need a scope for visual..I have the 80 mm binos but with folk talking about splitting doubles, Saturn etc...so that's another box I need:P

I managed some decent data on the running chicken last night and I think I will just try and double it tonight..and try some more high ISO exposures on the other mount ...I am processing another from last night 25600 ISO but not desks to see what it's like..so far looks ok.
Good luck to all.
Alex

[glend]

I will be out there again Alex. Swapped over to the 8" f12 Cassegrain, so I am ready to try for the Encke Gap with higher magnification. Hoping the Seeing holds up as well as last night.

[jahnpahwa]

Yep, I'm out again here in Canberra. Last night was a cracker!

[Camelopardalis]

Darn clouds rolled in just after sunset :sadeyes:

[jahnpahwa]

Clouds rolled in around 9:30 here in Canberra. Got about 35mins on Gabriela Mistral and have massacred it in gimp and phone filters for your viewing pleasure :rofl:I will be back for much more.
Me and kid 1 also got another half hour on rosetta and sthn pinwheel. Great discovery today was that we can lock the remote trigger on the slr to just keep taking pics! No more standing there and clicking em off, though thats also some nice hangout time.

[glend]

JP you can buy cheap interval timers for most cameras as well which allow you to set delay between exposures to provide cool down time etc.
There are some very nice apps that also run camwra s in Astro mode, like Backyard EOS and Backyard Nikon, but you will pay a fee for them, and you need a laptop nearby teathered to the camera. Great tools though, as you can pre-program a whole night's imaging run.

[glend]

Alex, how is it going up there for you tonight?

I did get out about 3am when Saturn got above 50 degrees but I knew walking out there what the Seeing was no where as good as the night before. I gave it a try but the conditions did not support using higher magnification. Packed up. Good luck to you.

[xelasnave]

I turned in 1 am because I was not functioning at all well.
I managed more data for the chicken..may even grab more tonight...and near 500 frames in high ISO on the Nikon mainly to always have something to process...
Alex

[glend]

I am bumping this thread up again because it is New Moon week and the rain seems to have cleared from the east coast for a few days. Certainly, from the forecast, tonight and tomorrow night are looking good. Get your dew straps warmed up, as the residual humidty might be a problem if you had some rain recently. I had a chance to check out the Seeing last night after midnight, when the cloud disappeared, and the sky looked very stable.
Good luck, and post up here regarding what your getting up to.:eyepop:

I know there are a couple of gents out at Coolah for the New Moon, hopefully they can find the time to give us a report from beyond the Black Stump.

[jahnpahwa]

I love this, and reckon it should just keep on rolling! As if a virtual star party ever needs to end?!

Tonight not looking great for Canberra, but tomorrow night is a chance :)

I set up last night under clouds, expecting that my cosmic-eagerness-force (CEF) would part them at some stage, but it was not to be.

Waiting on two v exciting bits of gear, and hope that the new gear cloud induction capacity (NGCIC) isn't going to overwhelm my CEF for too long.

I'll report back with even the most mundane progress made :thumbsup:

[jayconnor]

This is a cool idea, ill defiantly check in when im out shooting. I love chatting while out there

[glend]

Well, my apologies, it looks like the weather forecast has significantly changed since a few hours ago. Just stuck my head outside to confirm what the Bureau sat photo was showing, and the cloud has come out of no where. I was all set up to do some star testing tonight but it looks like it is off. The four day prognostic chart shows significant front movement, rain, and possible East Coast Low development; about as different as possible from the two clear night's of high pressure area indicated earlier today. :shrug:

[jahnpahwa]

Perhaps picking up a bit this week?


I got out last night. A bit windy and some bars of clouds coming across, but really wanted to try the mono camera, baader coma corrector and APT. Aim was to just be able to tocus and get the system going ok, but ended up getting almost 4 hours of subs. Still no guidescooe, so it was 120 x 1min in Ha, then 20 x 1 min each LRGB.

Haven't processed the LRGB yet, but here is the Ha.



In other news, i spent almost the ahole time out there w ok the rig. Got some thermal tights and also was sat in a sleeping bag the whole time... i was super toasty! Happy to be getting a more comfortable system down. Thinking about getting a shorter refractor to do some visual out there while waiting for pics.


JP

[Startrek]

Being a coastal dweller in Sydney and south coast NSW we don’t get a break from these darn big low pressure systems off the NSW coast that push cloud in and dump rain on us
Clearing towards the end of the week , hopefully

May was a quiet month for imaging ( 1 x glob and 3 galaxies ) and observing with less than favourable seeing

Hopefully June will be better with a nice chunk of the Milky Way rising earlier ( Lagoon, Triffid , Eagle , Omega etc.... )

Clear Skies !

[glend]

Absolutely, the East Coast Low makes for interesting surfing vision but prevents any sort of astro activity. The tendancy of these systems to strike twice, or continuiously, as they at first drift south then come bsck along to coast northward as a High pressure area pushes them, is particularly galling.

[jahnpahwa]

I feel like a jerk for having somewhat clear skies!


Processed the LRGB, from last night, colours aren't really where I'd like them, but the stars are aligned and it looks pretty much like a colour picture, so I'm calling it good.
Eggy stars and not super sharp, but hoping that guiding will help that... this is the goal for the end of the week, have guiding going, shoot some SHO and process in Hubble palette



Hoping for clear skies for you all!!


JP

[xelasnave]

I could not believe it. I drove back up yesterday (10 hours) cloud all the way but when I went out about 8 pm it was clear ..I was too tired to respond but I bet if I had set up it would have coulded in by the he time I set up.
Hope it's clear tonight.
Alex

[Camelopardalis]

Was nice to see some stars and some Sun again (today)...wind was too gusty last night to make any progress with a target :shrug:

Can't you guys keep the nasty weather south of the border :P :rofl:

[glend]

But Dunk, the border is closed to us! We can't stop it.:lol:

[xelasnave]

Well it's clear here and I am photographing something but I have no idea what it is...I left the Dec in place to get more dragon data and had the scope just pointing above the trees doing some adjustments waiting for a dragon and picked up some nebulosity which I can't make out so as to identify it...so let's see what and hour of ha will bring..it's exciting.
Alex

[Camelopardalis]

:rofl: :rofl:

Doing better than last night, seeing is still a bit fluffy but less gustiness (even though I had beans for dinner)

[xelasnave]

this was my mystery nebulosity...still a mystery to me.
alex

[glend]

Alex, you could try plate solving the image to get a location.

http://nova.astrometry.net/upload

[xelasnave]

Thanks Glen. I can't believe how cold it is here -1 C and I can't find my hot water bottle:eyepop:.
Alex

[brisen]

Hi Alex

The object is RCW105 or Gum 51. I recognise it as I started imaging this a few weeks ago but haven't had a chance to get back to it.

Brian

[xelasnave]

Thanks Brian I sure appreciate knowing. I did not recognise it from what I had. I took an hour of HA and was tempted to gather other channels but I kept to my plan and gathered more data on NGC6188. It was a wonderful night. I had the 80mm on one mount and the DSLR on the other and of course looking at the lappy screen etc I had no dark adaption...however I let both run without attention and laid down for about 30 minutes with no light and came out and it was jaw dropping with the Milky Way high and Jupiter rising..magical. there was only a little dew which was to a degree unfortunate as I wanted to lite a bon fire to get rid of some stuff...Maybe that's the key to holding off dew...have a bon fire planned. Just woke up now 20 C thank goodness.
Thanks again.
Alex

[xelasnave]

Gum 15?
Alex

[jahnpahwa]

Building a scrap wood pile this arvo to test this!

Some new kit has arrived here and of course the nights are looking rubbish for a bit, but Thursday and Friday night are looking decent.

Got almost an hour of Ha on the body of running chicken last night, absolutely loving the mono camera.

JP

[xelasnave]

Fantastic...the clouds have rolled in which is good cause I am near passing out I am so tired ...so I get the night off..unless there is a heavy dew which means I will do some burning off.
Hope others are getting some.
Alex

[glend]

It looks like tonight is going to be a good one on the east coast of NSW, the Low has moved off and it has dried out significantly with just 50% humidity here on the coast. No cloud, light north westerly wind, all very promising.
I have had the roof open on the observatory for most of the day for a good sunshine dry out after the storm, and some cleanup, vacuum, etc.
Good to go for tonight. Best of luck tonight. The Moon sets at 9:54pm but is not too significant yet anyway.

[Camelopardalis]

No luck up here, cloudy as...

[Saturnine]

Hi Glen & All

I think you'll find that the moon is setting at 9:54 not rising, you have probably realised that already with it shining nicely in the clear sky, seeing is average though. Good for low power views but shimmering at higher magnifications. Something to have a look at is C/2019 U6 Comet Lemmon, tonight located just next to M41 at Mag 7 ?. Hopefully visible in the moonlight, going out for a look now.

[glend]

Thanks Jeff, i fixed that, yes it is setting at 9:54pm. I will have to pass on the comet, it is behind a tree in my location.

[Startrek]

South coast NSW ( Shoalhaven) is clear tonight with cloud rolling in at 10.00pm
Currently imaging the Tweezers Galaxy
Friday night looking excellent , zero cloud all night to daylight
Saturday looking good too with some cloud rolling in at 11pm
An imaging feast for 3 nights running
I might pull the 12” dob out of the garage tomorrow night for some observing in the front yard whilst imaging in the back yard with the 8” f5 newt
Sunday heading back to Sydney for grand parent duties

[Sunfish]

Lightening,. The imaging might be interesting.

[glend]

Yeah, I can see lightening down south, and cloud has ruined tonight it seems. I was waiting for Saturn to get up above 60 degrees but it looks like a scrub.

Edit: I spoke too soon, just came in from closing up the observatory. The storms stayed out to sea and took any cloud with them by 1am, so I have had a few very good hours to observe Saturn and Jupiter very high in the sky. The plan was to go for the Encke Gap in the A-ring, but while Saturn is getting larger as it nears opposition on the 21st of July, that Gap still eludes me. Still it was a good night for chasing other delights like the Helix Nebula as well. I hope those who persevered have been rewarded.:thumbsup:

[jahnpahwa]

Sensational sky tonight for Canberra, probably the pick of the upcoming three.
A comedy of errors on my part has meant fairly low productivity... I'm starting to wonder if I perhaps need a bit more sleep :lol:

[xelasnave]

It's clear here although it's pretty wet and I can see misty going past the Moon.
Trying some O11 on NGC 6188 to see if it helps. I am charging the observatory battery using a car charged off the vans new batteries..wasteful but I can't be bothered putting petrol in the Genny.
A duck just now landed on the dam ..I didn't know they flew around at night.
Alex

[jahnpahwa]

This commentary is top notch. I'd be surprised at a duck making a night mission, too.
Tonight is over for me, we got a nice, simple refractor (a sw 102/500 on the gso skyview alt-az mount) for my daughter today, so we spent a bit of time learning how to aim with a red dot finder, how to take pics with a dslr in the back (lots of moon shots), then did some star hopping and found Ptolemy's cluster. Saw 4 moons and the stripes of Jupiter, too. She loves it.

I mucked around with imaging, got sharpcap polar aligning going, got the guide camera focussed, all seemed good but in the end just couldnt get phd2 and apt to get along. When Ev went to bed i had a fun little cluster session with it... i really love the wishing well cluster so much. I think its my pick of the bunch so far. Happy to have a simple set up where i can relax and not burn brain fuel working out software issues


JP

[Startrek]

Epic night here down in the Shoalhaven with good seeing , nice and clear , no wind and the moon has gone
Just finished capturing 3 hours on Centaurus A and started on M20 Trifid
Should finish around 2am
Best night for months
Tomorrow night looks ok too

[xelasnave]

It went a little wobbly here but picked up.
This little HEQ5 mount is not bad. I am getting 3 minute unguided subs which is rather ironic as I downloaded PHD again ..I am glad I tried these 3 minute subs before PHD as I would have given it all the credit.
Just for fun tried 500 gain in HA and although burnt out a little showed so much more in the darker regions, anyways I can use it.
Cold however it's is near zero now.
Alex

[glend]

It is 9C here but the humidity is 94%, but thankfully I am in the raised observatory on carpet and not on wet ground. I have been working on Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars with the 8" Classical Cassegrain. Seeing was not bad, very stable sky, no swimming, but the transparency was not great (I suspect a bit of fog is settling).
Started about 1:30am with collimation tuning, or that was the plan, turns out it is still spot on. Jupiter was great, all the band's in their glory and the five bright Moons were all lined up on either side (3 &2). Saturn was larger than I recall from a few weeks ago, and will continue to increase in size leading up to the Opposition on 21 July. Hopefully this will help with ring resolution, as currently I believe I will never see the Encke Gap with the CC, just not enough aperture. There was good crisp definition in the rings, and the Cassini Division was very sharp, out at the edge of the A-ring I could see what I believe is the Minima as it feathers out but the Enke Gap eludes me.
From a power standpoint, the conditions limited me to 200x as the sweet spot tonight, which is my 12mm EP on the CC (2400 fl). I tried a 6mm (300x) but while producing a larger planet it lack the clarity of the 12mm. I also tried barlowing the 12mm but it produced the same fuzzy image. Packed up after a tour of doubles out to the east and a look at 47 Tuc, which i had not seen with the CC, it was very large and reasonably bright. Closed the roof at 3:30am and turned on the dehumidifier. A pretty good night.

[Camelopardalis]

It settled a bit here after the clouds stopped rolling through but they left their dewy presence all over my gear :sadeyes:

As the Moon was still up, I started off with a punt at the Keyhole region of Eta Carinae in Ha before it got too low into the soup.

Glen, don't discount the chances of seeing the Encke Gap with an 8"... I've seen it visually through my Edge8 on several occasions. Of course, the chances improve with a mono imager on the back ;)

[jahnpahwa]

Dunk, Carina look so sharp there mate, especially the dark neb!


I had a go ladt night, first Rosette (fail), then pencil (near pass) and then lagoon (enough data to play with)


One of these days I'll pick a target and do it properly. But for now here is a badly framed lagoon with a bit of a fun colour map.

[xelasnave]

So it being reasonably clear around 4 pm I decided to get a little more serious so replaced the 80 mm with the 115 mm, set up the double bracket and put on the finder scope and the guide scope and camera..came in went out when near dark getting everything in order, dark arrived, start tracking, check camera is capturing...now let's get the guiding working..after realising I needed another cable to connect the mount and putting it in place let's switch on the recently newly downloaded PHD...now how did this go??? Mmmm yes connect everything and away we Go...mmm a black screen, take off lens cap, still black, check cables..no..restart lappy that often helps ..no...damn guiding just another thing to go wrong...turned around to see what the Milky Way is doing...mmm maybe the fact those black clouds is why my screen is black...oh well.
So covered it all up happy that everything is hopefully right to go...covering up makes the clouds go away.
Inside trying to stack five hours of one minute exposures with 3x drizzle of the Dragons it's been registering all afternoon and says only five hours to go..wait it now says six????
Had to start the Genny to charge the little battery to run the small charger to charge the main bank..need to sort that out but it's holding up and sorting will have to wait until daylight...what day is it?
Alex

[glend]

Alex, if my recent experience is anything to go by, this cloud seems to disappear by midnight. It happened here three nights in a row this week.

[xelasnave]

It got foggy. And I had the 115 mm on the HEQ 5 and was getting trailing in RA..could not sort it out there and then not there..sent me bats...so I may take it off and go with the 80mm again ..I have things to do with the EQ 6 but no doubt the 115 mm will be happier on it...ob is being dismantled and it probably will be finished by Friday..thanks again for the heads up...latest idea for new scope..150 mm Espirit probably need a eq8 but I could get great results with little mucking about...stacked 6 hours of ha for dragons with another ten for other channels out of the 80mm I had to stay up all night to refill the genny as I now have my desk top here and stacking which is far better than the lappy..didnt not want things stopping mid way thru..or just near the end...and it's all 3x drizzle..faster on the desk top , says 8 processors working on it..but the ha took from 1 pm yesterday until 7 am this morning..the other channels only 75 subs and they are moving along.

Alex

[glend]

Tonight held so much promise, a slight westerly breeze after sunset, clouds cleared off, humidity stayed around 50% (which is low for winter night time around here). A glance at the sky and it looked pretty stable, no obvious twinkling aloft. Woke up at moon set at (2:15am) and opened the observatory. Once again tonight I was hunting the Encke Gap (Saturn) and with Saturn above 70 degrees alt it seemed like the best night of the last three attempts. Sadly, it quickly proved to be the worst of the three sessions. I usually start with my 12mm EP on Saturn (which is just over 200x on the CC), but I quickly realised the usual crisp detail was missing, and pressing on to 300x was out of the question. It was so bad I could barely see the Cassini Division.
I changed over to Jupiter and it too lacked the snap I am used to. Had a quick look at Mars and Neptune just because they were there. Check some normally easy Doubles and then closed the roof. A waste of a seemingly good night. I will give it a rest now till after the full moon period. Hope others out tonight have had better conditions.:shrug:

[xelasnave]

Looking good here nice strong wind to blow the moisture away, no clouds just a haze, plenty of Moon to see what I am doing, so cold I probably won't have to switch on the cooler...if I can do no more than get the eq6 polaligned it will be great. Next see if the mount likes the 115 mm and see what exposures I can get away with unguided..set the camera running in ha and tidy stuff if I can hack the cold. My Dragon data is almost near stacked so have a play with that ... All good.
Alex

[rrussell1962]

A testing night for me in Brisbane. I have swapped out the Obsession 18 inch F4.5 3.1 inch Astrosystems secondary holder for a 3.5 inch Novak so that I can move the primary mirror up a bit to gain a bit of in focus without losing any aperture. Have also reduced the guide speeds on the Servo Cat. Interesting moving from collimating a 4 screw secondary holder to a 3 screw design.

[xelasnave]

OK my grizzle
I bent the bolts holding my pedestal for the mount only a couple of degrees..found the polar with pole master...but after I centred the little cross on soct I noticed it's moving only slightly..maybe the bolts are trying to bend back maybe things cooling...so coffee time...it can test your patience this game.
Alex

[glend]

Things seem to be looking very promising along the east coast of NSW for the next few days of this week. The Bureau forecast charts show favourable high pressure and no onshore winds, leading up to the New Moon next Sunday. Hopefully the sunshine will dry out the ground and air. I am getting setup now for tonight. Good luck everyone.

[Startrek]

Thanks Glen
It’s been a while since we have scored 3 good nights in a row in the Newcastle, Sydney and Wollongong part of the east coast
Tonight , Monday and Tuesday nights are looking really good , just a light 5 to 10 km/hr westerly to keep the dew at bay, low Jetstream, low humidity and no moon until after midnight
Enjoy !!

[Startrek]

CFN usually get it right 95% of the time but last night some high cloud rolled in from the SW into the Sydney basin and ended my imaging session at 11.15pm
I waited another hour but it was moving slowly so went to bed, probably would have cleared by 1.30am
Tonight hopefully will be a clean run from 6.30pm until the early hours
Fingers crossed

[Sunfish]

Same result here. Did get some lagoon and so I hope you all got some exposures.

Very nice out there tonight and still in the lagoon in Ha and Oiii. The tilt looks improved with a little tightening here and there but the filter is sticky .

[Startrek]

Last night was cut short by that high cloud band that covered Sydney around 11pm
Tonight’s clear so gathering some more data on the Lagoon , guiding started off poor at 1.50 arc sec error around 30deg Alt but is improving slowly with altitude, it’s now 1.35 arc sec error at 45 deg but still ordinary
Going for 3 to 4 hours

[Sunfish]

PHD2 error now about 1 on the OAG with some corrections up to 1000 but mostly 500 pix. Not sure why. More high cloud.? The wind?

Filter wheel back on line though. So I can add some RGB to Ha .

[Sunfish]

This is what I have so far for my first Lagoon. A strange flower in HGOBO .The darks seem to make the Ha wild so need to iron out that and add more as it arrives.

[glend]

Well, tonight was a mixed bag. Double splitting was generally ok but still trying to get some clarity in Sarurn's rings. I just could not push much further than 203x on the 2436mm fl CC, here on the coast, and the sharpness fell off pretty fast at high X powers. At 270x it was mushing out. Cassini Division was seen but conditions may never favour getting more detail.

[xelasnave]

Having a go tonight at the Eagle Nebula. The sky seems clear but the dew could drown you but so far the 115 mm is doing very well.
I have it on the heq5 which does not seem to react well to the weight as I can't get RA to perform very well. No guiding so banging off HA at one minute exposures..they seem ok ..anyone else out there?
Alex

[glend]

Tonight is looking very promising along the NSW coast.

:eyepop:

[Pepper]

Super nice here tonight. Redoing eta carina with different camera settings.
Mount guiding like an absolute champ.

[jahnpahwa]

I'm kind of a zombie today, been out for a few nights now, trying some RGB imaging and guiding the newt around with varying degrees of success, also helped a local astro club member set up a mount, which I was really happy to help with.



Tonight looking to be the best of all but I'm not sure I'll be awake past 8pm!



I've got the newt mounted up on the gso skyview mount to push it around and spend some time on the moon tonight, looking forward to trying to take a peek at the Straight wall in Mare Nubium over tonight and tomorrow, using a new (to me) 5mm EP. The mount feels totally fine with the newt on, I guess with eyepiece, barlow and finder its pushing 10kg... i'm liking it more and more.


Hope you all have some great seeing!
JP

[jahnpahwa]

Unexpectedly clear at the moment, my 9yo daughter and i both saw Rupes Recta just now. Can also juuuust make out the rile on the other side if the nearby crater, too. Using the newt on the alt az with 250x mag.

[glend]

Another major disappointment, on a night that looked so promising. Rolled back the roof at 3am to have a good look at Jupiter (less than two weeks out from opposition) and Saturn (3 weeks to opposition). The Moon was setting at 3:30 so i was hopeful. I have had a string of nights with terrible Seeing, tonight included now.
Despite being a warm night with a slight NW breeze, and very low humidity for my location, the conditions aloft were showing spiking stars, and murky planets. Maybe that dust storm I heard about out west had thrown a bunch of stuff into the upper atmo, in any case it was not worth continuing tonight. Used the time to add a couple of calibration stars to fine tune my alignment. Closed the roof and made a cup of tea. :shrug: