First Clear Sky - WITH ICE!!!
We finally have a clear sky!!!!!
First one in over a month!
I set the scope up around 4pm for a looooong cool down, ready for a great night trying astrophotography.
As the sun set I saw the beautiful Saturn/Mercury/Venus conjunction organising itself for Sunday and took a pic without the scope but it only showed Saturn! (pic in other thread). A wonderful sight with naked eyes though!!
Once dark fell, and with a very wet dew covered scope, I tried Joop with several combinations of EP's and Barlow. The seeing was really bad due to the fog settling in. I could not get a good pic through the foggy atmosphere and every star was twinkling madly. However I did include (below) the largest pic I have taken of Joop ever! It was a 9mm Plossl.
I then waited patiently for old 'Lunar' to rise so I could try some wide angle shots Mike suggested and that was when I noticed that the water on my OTA had frozen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My OTA was completely covered in ice! No wonder I was shivering. I took the thermometer outside and within 5 minutes it read minus 3 degrees.
But I was determined to get these Wide angle Lunar shots! Below, next to the fogged out Joop close up, is the Moon-rise through fog and with a frozen Scope.
I quickly packed up and headed inside to thaw out!
Sorry for the bad quality but I wanted to post my first close-up of Joop and my first wide-angle Moon!
Enjoy! (or not)
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