[Matty P (Matt)]

Last night, I was awarded with crystal clear skies after a very long week. What better way to unwind on a Friday night than to sit outside under the stars. Although something did not feel right, it was too good to be true.

I put the scope to cool a few hours before I planned to start imaging. By the time I set everything up it was now around 10pm. I aligned the scope and everything was coming along nicely.

Now was the time things started to get really weird... When I tried to start up the capture software for the DMK, an application error came up and the computer refused to start the program. I restarted the lappy but the same problem was still there. After a bit of troubleshooting, I reinstalled the capture software and everything was back to normal. This had set my back around 30-45 minutes and by the time now, the Moon had disappeared behind house.

Now that I had missed the chance to image the Moon, I decided to image Mars while waiting for Saturn to rise. After a few AVI's of Mars I pointed the scope to Saturn and everything seemed fine.....

Until.... the capture software decided it wanted to play some tricks on me. I centered Saturn on the chip, focused the scope and pressed the record button. The camera recorded around 2500 frames when it froze. I couldn’t do much but just stare at the laptop screen in despair.

When the frustration finally set in, I decided to pack up the equipment. As I was in the middle putting everything away. I remember looking up and the whole sky was covered in a thick blanket of cloud.

What a weird night! I hope this never happens again.