At Last

[beren]

Finally got a chance to do some driveway observing last night under great conditions , although extemely cold and dewy the sky was clear and devoid of any threating cloud cover . Not wanting to jinx this change of fortune i didnt give any thought on any observing/imaging plans during the afternoon , spontenous can be good sometimes :D
Unfortunately the wife saw me in my new thermal longjohns/top in preperation for the brisk evening , ignoring the taunts i had the gear set up in quick time during dusk . The conjuction was blocked by houses/trees , i could only see 2 , dont think i have ever sighted mercury .
Ditched the idea of doing any imaging , two cold to be sitting watching a stopwatch although i got some piggyback shots in {lagoon/triffid neb, M7 scoripion tail , crux and the pointers} . Tried sighting comet temple with the RA/dec supllied by heavens above , no luck visually or with the camera , hopefully the night of the 4th and 5th will be clear to try again . By 9pm Scorpuis and Sagittaruis are well placed and with some Don Mclean/James Taylor/harry chapin playing in the backgound { :thumbsup: } made up some time exploring this rich region , the milky way really stood out . With the moon rising it was time to call it quits but wow what a night , worthy compenstation for a lenghty hitaus , hope everyone had a chance to get out to :thumbsup:

[iceman]

Wow stuart, great report and great shots. The 2nd one is my favourite! You really should take a few either side and do a mosaic next time.. stunning shots.

[h0ughy]

Great stuff there! where is the photo of you in the longjohns ???:rofl:

[atalas]

Great shots beren :eyepop:

Louie :thumbsup:

[[1ponders]]

Nice one Stuart. I really like the crux shot. Glad you guys in the west are getting some viewing time.

[ving]

nice one stuart:)
very pretty shots!

[dhumpie]

That's some amazing wide field shots. Alwyas love wide field shots! I should try some piggybacking sometime myself :)

Darren

[beren]

:D Thanks......had a second helping again with great conditons last night , forgot to recharge the batteries so had to take it easy with the heaters but still they worked a treat to combat the dew. :2thumbs: Ill never laugh at wearing long johns again , should say Thermals , very effective despite the embarrasment .Did some visual stuff exploring the regions described in the AS&t june edition and some pics through the 120mm refractor riding shotgun on the SCT{ think im having issues with camera mirror slap through the SCT , explore that next time , the sky was to good to worry about that stuff}


Some usual and fav objects ....Swan/triffid/lagoon/eta.....the mighty open cluster NGC3532 and M7

[iceman]

More fantastic shots Stuart! You're getting better all the time!

[[1ponders]]

Nice shootin' Tex. Glad to see you're getting more time out Stuart.

[Dave47tuc]

Great shots Stuart :2thumbs:

Enjoyed your report. :thumbsup:

[Mick]

Nice work Stuart :)

[beren]

:D Cheers .....got a hat trick great conditons tonight as well but just cant get the energy to take advantage of it :ashamed: two 1am stints in a row drains the batteries

[h0ughy]

GREAT IMAGING SKILLS THERE MATE. :2thumbs:

[dhumpie]

Very, very nice. Colors look very natural as well. How long were the exposures?

Darren

[beren]

Darren just one exposure/ 3mins@800iso with the D70 , my aim was just to get a pictorial of all the objects observed during the evening without getting bogged down with focus etc, i was hoping to get some pics through the SCT but settings at 2500mm are lot less unforgiving then the 600mm of the refractor ...next time :D

[ballaratdragons]

And what's wrong with thermals!!!! I've been wearing them for a few weeks already.

Stuart, Thanks for posting the Milky Way shots. My boys will love them! (I do too).

Great shots.

[beren]

:D thermals are hip......Ken id prefer your dark skies to view the Sag/Scorp star clouds visually then over any recordered image :thumbsup:

[dhumpie]

Keep up to good work. Althought I like the look of those deep images with all the nebular swirls and colors, I like the realism of your images. Keep them coming ;)

Darren

[Little Dragon]

Thank's Beren, like my dad said we will love th e pictures of the Milkey Way:stargaze:
We had a good look at the Milkey Way last night. The big black bit (coal sack) was so easy to see, it realy stuck out. :eyepop:

[beren]

Thanks Harry , the pics are no match for the real thing but its great you and your brother {and Dad } like them and even better that you get out and check the night sky :2thumbs: good luck this weekend in the red and white and get a bag of tries mate :D


Thanks Darren , im stoked with what a newcomer to DSLR imaging can do, i wish i could reach the standard the gurus achieve but im pleased how the camera fits in with my observing and the tricky potential of getting a good image .....the best thing though is anybody can do it

[ballaratdragons]

Beren,

I took Harry up to the camp last night to check it out for dark sky with no moon. Last time I looked the moon was out.

Boy oh Boy! I thought it was dark at my place! It is amazing up there and it is only 3k away. The whole milky way was casting a very slight shadow effect!!!! and like Harry said, the coal sack dominated the sky (and Sagg). No matter where you looked in the sky both Sagg and coal sack stuck out in peripheral vision! I stood there in awe of it all for a good 15 minutes with Harry shaking and saying "I'm cold, can we go now".

It was good just sharing the sky with him. (until we froze).

[beren]

LOL no thermals mate , wish i could get to a real good dark sight regulary

[Daring Dave]

In a word Stewart....Simply superb shots..!

[ballaratdragons]

You are daring, Dave. You spelt Stuart wrong! That's blasphemy to Stuarts and Stewarts.