Last night (29th December) was the clearest, steadiest sky I have seen since Camp. Actually I think last night was even better. The Transparency -10/10 and the seeing was 9/10!!! Not one star even gave the slightest twinkle, and there where so many stars visible I had trouble working out the constellations.
The air was dead still (very rare here) and the temp was a comfortable 18 degrees and slowly dropped to about 14 over many hours. And NO MOON!
I placed the scope out at sunset and didn't go near it for about 3 hours. After collimation and a quick look at Mars through the 15mm Plossl I stuck in the Toucam on Long Exposure Mode running 'Desire'.
No matter how hard I tried I could not capture anything without tracking and after about 1 hour of attempts, I gave up on the Star trails and switched to Normal Mode and used the Toucam's V-Record program.
I wanted to have a good go at the Trap again to see if I could capture E & F again just in case my last success was just a fluke. Well, I got them again! I also think there may be a few others in there as well but I will leave that to those that know what the stars of the Trap should look like.
Whilst in Orion I also captured 2 nice doubles.
Saturn was now high enough to attempt. This is my first shot at Saturn since learning more about the Toucam. I still can't seem to get it BIG like others posted in here but I'm happy with it as it is only my 2nd go at the Planet.
After having fun imaging I packed up the Toucam and Lappy and went eyeball! It was such an incredible night everything looked great!
Using my fantastic 2" 32mm Erfle I went Galaxy hunting in the Fornax Region and was richly rewarded with Galaxies almost everywhere I pointed the scope in Fornax and Eridanus!
With the 2" Erfle I managed to get at least 8 Galaxies from the Fornax Cluster in the FOV with their big brother just outsive the FOV. It was stunning, and so clear!!! I scanned around the sky for the rest of the night taking in the terrific conditions and after 'Oooing and Ahhhing' for many hours I finally packed it in at 4am. I only wish I could've gotten a pic of the Fornax Cluster as it was truly breathtaking. In time I will.
I have posted some pics here. I know they are not great quality, but like I have said before "I'm having fun!"
What a fantastic night it was!
See how many stars you can find for me in the Trap.
1. Saturn - my 2nd attempt.
2. Double in Orion
3. Another Double in Orion
4 The Trap with ? stars.
saturn is great ken. did you get the observatory up and running again? the puter must be OK!! Nice report and thanks for telling us, not that we are a jealous lot or anything of pristine dark skies.........
saturn is great ken. did you get the observatory up and running again? the puter must be OK!! Nice report and thanks for telling us, not that we are a jealous lot or anything of pristine dark skies.........
No 'Observa-Cubby' Houghy. I use the Laptop exclusively now. It sits on a Piano stool next to the scope. The pooter survived the Crash and is now my boys' pooter. They said they want to learn to process astro-pics on it!!!! Cool.
Yeah, Dark here Chuck your job in and move to the country! No money but great sky LOL!
sooooo jealous of the colour in saturn pic - well done!!! i am yet to get close to this. barlow / powermate is only way to get it bigger. You may try a 2x mitchell resample in registax to get a bit bigger scale, go 4x if you have the time to wait for it process.
nice little double!!
this is very good, i like this the best
yup 6 of the best again, i have no idea where the other 2 are. someone said 8 once????
i know you can't wait for tracking, but this stuff makes it so worthwhile as a great skill you have learnt!
Glad you got some good seeing. I was a bit lazy last night
It was cloudy here till about midnight. I fell asleep on the couch and when I got up around 1 am. It was clear but I went to bed instead.
Many years ago I would have gone out to observe now I'm getting lazy
Well it looks clear tonight but I don't think it will be as good as the sky looks a bit to pale blue for me. I will give it a go anyways.
I think Stu is coming down and Geoff is
Lets hope we all get a night in and you another Ken
They say 42c tomorrow, you have to be kidding I hate summer.
Somebody Buy a scope so it can rain again.
'H' is a double in your diagram but I suppose me capturing that is asking a bit too much.
Would be nice if one of the resident experts could confirm it.
Davo, or anyone else, I can email the original Avi if you like (if I can work out how) and you can see if you can improve on my Registax attempt and see if you can bring out any more detail. The original Avi is certainly nothing like the finished product!
Dave 47Tuc, good luck tonight. It is starting to cloud up a bit here.
Chuck your job in and move to the country! No money but great sky LOL!
I hate summer. 
