Why, Why, Why... Delilah

[AJames]

BOY. Frustration plus this morning !
Excited to see an occultation of another 1st magnitude star, Antares, this morning 3:10 am in the morning,,, Darn, under 11/10th cloudy. Bugger.
Disappointed, bring the small refractor 'scope in... Dropped it! Dented the front of the scope. 5 cm refractor instantly ~3cm clear aperture. &%@&.
Woke the new girlfriend up. No happy, Jan. Goes back to bed. (Probably thinks thinks the new boyfriend total nutter. Could be right!) :screwy:
Try again at 4:00 am, want to see Antares, Moon and the 6th magnitude HIP 80910. Now 12/10th cloud. Bugger.
Go inside, and tried to re round the front of the telescope, eventually place squared bottom of a chair on the ground - only thing that fits after rummaging through much of the the house. Realise can't make a noise - will wake the new girlfriend up. Bugger.
Try again to see occultation of 6.0 mag star, HIP 80910 at around 04:15 pm. Now little bits of clear sky to the south and north but heavy cloud over the Moon for next 15 mins. Darn It. Missed it!!
Joy. Cloud southward allows the exposure of Venus and Jupiter - finally some luck. Go in get the binoculars. Come out. The neighbour must of hear something - turns on the outside lights so I can "see what I'm doing". Can't be bothered to see what I am doing. Arrrrrrgh!!! Thanks &#%@!!.
Finally see the Moon, then Antares Hip Hip Hooray!
Moments later, the cloud again "snuffs the battle with delight."
Decision Ah. Bring in cart loads of stuff again.
Last item, the outside light immediately goes off...
Remember : Must do something terrible to neighbour tommorow...
5:50pm Desperately need an observational fix.. open software Stellarium.
Watch the events one after the other.. now slightly depressed...
Type this sorry e-mail to IIS.
Now to bed.... ~06:15 am
Girlfriend now gets up for a cuppa...
States; "Don't forget, you promised to take me to lunch today..."

Forgive me Delilah, I just could take anymore.... :mad2:

Andrew

[alan meehan]

pearler of a shot andrew well worth upsetting the neighbour,have anice lunch

[Ric]

Hi Andrew, it seems there was a few of us in the same situation with the clouds last night.

Have a great lunch and hope your night is better tonight.

Cheers

[h0ughy]

yeah mate thats better than the actual sky view - what did you generate the image on?

[ngcles]

Hi Andrew & All,

I tips me lid to you Andrew -- because I know the severe health probs and crippling disablities you have to fight day-by-day to do things like this.

For you to be actively observing in _any_ capacity should be an inspiration to us all.

Best

Les D

[danielsun]

Although a very nice result in the end.:thumbsup:
Well done Andrew.
Hope you enjoyed your lunch.;)

[AJames]

Houghy,
The image was made from Stellarium 0.9.1, and was copied using Preview in the MAC OSX "Grab" function. This allows images in tiff format, which I simply convert and compress to a jpg using a Japanese freeware MAC only program called ToyViewer 4.92. (See http://homepage.mac.com/t_ogihara/software/OSX/index.html)

Stellarium has pretty good planetary images, which are fairly realistic - probably just as good as other expensive astronomical software versions I have used. On the quality iMac screen the images look crisp and clean on a translucent black background.
As for nebulosity, even these look realistic, though I wish there were more southern information. For example, the LMC and SMC can't be searched for nor is the Eta Carinae nebula is portrayed. The northern objects, however, look as they do in the telescope.
I have not seen the PC version of Stellarium, so I can't comment of the realism of the images presented - though they should be as good.

Regards,
Andrew

[AJames]

Thanks for this, but the morning was probably worst with two layers of total cloud cover and a few raindrops. This was disappointing, because only about an hour before, the Cross and the southern stars through the Milky Way were shining brightly. Since 5.30pm it in now bucketing down raining... Curses.
(I been thinking of getting an old unused lens or mirror, and take it outside and reverently place it under sky a token for the sky or cloud gods - just to appease them. It might work, but even if it doesn't, the rain might at least clean the surfaces.)

Lunch and company, however, was pretty good. Need more shut-eye though - but that's for the working week. There is always the hope of next weekend.

Regards

[h0ughy]

I was hoping to catch the scene this morning as it almost cleared last night, so I got up at 4am - and promptly went back to bed. thanks for the info on how you got you image. Never owned a Mac, probably never will, but hey thats OK - nothing wrong with that (to quote seinfeld LOL)!

[Ric]

:rofl::rofl:

I can just see us all standing around in robes and praying to the sky gods under a dark sky. It would certainly give the passing people something to think about.

Then again I've heard of stranger things happening in this world of ours.

Cheers

[h0ughy]

Yes I have seen and heard people talk to the most amazingthings - like G11 tripods and the like!!!! all to no avail!!:whistle:

[AJames]

How 'bout instead just forming a "haven religion". :innocent:: Then we could discards the robes and, for a little while, perhaps do it in the nude if you like :scared: (bit chilly in winter, though). Charge two-bucks-and-half per customer (tax deduction), and we could all probably afford either a better observing site, or hire (or buy) a jet aircraft to take us where the sky is clear and the weather is pleasant!

(Bonus: Eliminating the bit chilly in winter option, mentioned above and the embarrassment for those who are new to the flock.)
Better still, we could form an astronomy church and school (additional government funding) :D, which must have an obligator observatory :astron: and nightly "pray" :prey2::prey2: sessions so we can all appease the sky gods!

:stargaze: :stargaze: :stargaze: :stargaze: :stargaze: :stargaze: :stargaze:

How's that for an option, Brother Ric?
:rofl::rofl::rofl:

Brother Andrew

[Ric]

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

Hi Andrew, I think it already been done isn't that called Paganism where we worship nature and observe the solstices.

No doubt ASIO will want to be involved with this idea :lol:

Hi Houghy, I always talk to my scope and mount, doesn't everyone ;), I feel it's perfectly normal behaviour at 2:00 am in the morning :whistle:

Cheers

[Glenhuon]

Remember being told the story of a bunch of astronomers on a beach with a big bonfire to sit around and suddenly dancing around the fire to the amazement of onlookers. They then turned towards the same point in the sky and called "Give us a sign" and this great bright light appeared for a few seconds and faded away. (I Think they told them about Iridium Flares once they stopped laughing at the expressions.)

Bill

[Ric]

:rofl:Good value Bill, thats definitely one for a star party.:thumbsup:

Cheers