Am I dedicated.....or what?

[[1ponders]]

It is a beautiful crystal clear night here on the Sunshine Coast. It really lived up to its name today. So what better way to finish off the day than with an astrophotography session with my new lens.

HOWEVER! It is a bit of a challenge. Latest weather reports are putting the wind gusts at up to 45 kph from the South West in my area :cold: :cold: :cold: :lol: and a Jet Stream of around 150 mph. Am I nuts or what!:screwy: :whistle: :doh: :scared: :screwy: :lol:


Anyone else out here tonight freezing their buns off in a howling wind.

Thank goodness for wireless connection :lol:

[Zuts]

lol, I wish i was 'freezing' my buns off in Nambour.....

[[1ponders]]

It is so cold in the wind I am also christening my Hepworth freezer suit jacket tonight. Mmmmmm.... Toasty :D

[sheeny]

It's overcast and misty here... so I'm not keen enough to go out in it:lol:!

Testing out the wood heater;)... mmm toasty!:P

I hope you get something worthwhile for your trouble!:thumbsup:

Al.

[[1ponders]]

We'll know tomorrow :lol:

[hookedonsaturn]

:mad2: grrrrrrrrr rub it in finaly got this dam newtonian colliminated and nothing but cloud What did i do that was so bad when i was little that god punishes me this way:shrug:

[Dennis]

Hi Paul

I did my stint in the freezer suit last night - lovely and warm. Seeing was atrocious so I just went through all the Hartung objects in Scorpius at a fast rate of knots using SkyTools and the GoTo.

Not a classical, traditional and gentlemanly session; it was effective, if obscenely swift, and it got me in bed before 2:00am.

Yoga and family tonight, so no playing outside for me.

Cheers

Dennis

[[1ponders]]

I'm trying to see how much a great lens can turn a sows ear into a silk purse :lol:

[leon]

I'm out there Paul, not very promising though, but I'll give it a go tonight.

Leon

[h0ughy]

any results yet paul?

[davidpretorius]

you guys have not thrown off that jet stream for 5 months!!!

at least you can go outside without clouds....................

clear here as well and temps about to go negative.... io shadow looks awesome... fingers crossed

[[1ponders]]

Tell me about it DP. It is the PITS! About 135mm is as long a focal length I can use tonight I think :rolleyes;




:D

[[1ponders]]

It is looking promising h0ughy. I'm guiding with the Orion and the mount is guiding like a dream, all things considered. I've grabbed a few M7/M6 and about 10@4 min ISO400 M8/M20 and now I'm going to try to catch 20 or so 4min@ISO800 of Corona Aust. I tried that the other night and it looked promising but needed some more time and a faster ISO.

[h0ughy]

well process some and post them?

[[1ponders]]

OK, here is one from last night, Corona Australis. 15@ISO400, f/2 120 sec.

All I've done is a quick levels and curves to bring up the stars so I could see what they were like in the corners. Pretty damn good actually :D

[[1ponders]]

Here is a full size corner crop from the top left corner.

[leon]

good one Paul pretty well spot on.

Leon

[Gargoyle_Steve]

Nice image Paul, despite you saying it was a "quick" processing job. I'd liek to think that one day I'm capable of such shots

I was outside tonight too and yeah that wind's a cracker tonight! I've been enjoying some visual observing but I have given it away for the night now. As you say it was a beautiful warm sunny July day here on the coast, and the night has brought a sky with great transparency - but with jetstream up high, and a cold wind down low.

I observed the later quarter of the shadow transit, must admit I had pretty good detail with the seeing dropping out only occasionally. I've also spent some time on Omega Centauri and 47Tuc before browsing around the Antares region, ie M4, NGC6144 then drifting further afield checking out various and sundry other globs - it's just that kind of night.

Anyway good luck with the imaging, hope it goes really well however long you stay at it!
:thumbsup:
It's a nice sky, looking forward to viewing as good as tonight or even better Saturday at Ron's.

[Ric]

Great image Paul, lovely and sharp.

I would have liked to have been out tonight but it's wall to wall cloud layer down here.

Cheers

[alan meehan]

hay paul nice shot well done,save some qld sky for us,and warm it up abit :D

[ballaratdragons]

Freezer Suits on the Sunshine Coast!!!!!! Us mad folk down here would probably be out in thongs and shorts in your 'cold' weather :lol:

[[1ponders]]

Well I tried it again tonight Ken but it was just too hot to wear :lol:.

Al it's plenty dark at the moment. I'm doing 5 min f/2 shots atm and I'm thinking I might be able to go up to 8 min ;)

And I want to move to a darker site :lol:

[alan meehan]

paul just follow houghy to the dark side,site.i have bought one of those freezer jackets for qld,sounds as if they get warm.8 min worth a go at

[erick]

Next couple of months is ideal time for snorkling off Bundaberg coastline - calm clear waters. After years living in Melbourne, I'd return and hit the water just after sunrise to get the calmest conditions. Forgot my shorty wetsuit one morning but could still spend a hour in the water :lol: