Ready for a long night..

iceman (Mike) · #1 19-10-2007, 09:22 PM

Been cloudy most of the night, but clearing up nicely now.. Just set up the mount and drift aligned.. well, to my standards.. a quick and dirty

There's apparently a southerly coming through later on, i'm hoping it will calm down by around 1-2am when i'll get back up for some imaging!

xelasnave · #2 19-10-2007, 09:46 PM

Good luck Mike...Orion perhaps???
alex

iceman (Mike) · #3 20-10-2007, 06:05 AM

Was going to do Orion, but of course the southerly brought clouds

I went back to bed.

Maybe tonight.

Ric · #4 20-10-2007, 07:43 AM

Hope you get a better night tonight Mike.

I enjoyed you article on the Eclipse in AS&T as well.

Cheers

iceman (Mike) · #5 21-10-2007, 05:24 AM

Thanks Ric.

Last night was much better! Seeing and transparency were very good, all night long.

Spent an hour or so imaging Luna at around 6:30pm last night, then got up this morning at 2:30am to do some ED80/350D imaging of M42, and M46/M47. My polar alignment wasn't spot on, so I was limited to 90s exposures (unguided). It got light so early!

I then moved onto Mars, and then Venus. I wanted to capture Saturn as well, but the sky was so bright by then I couldn't even find it anymore!

I've got a lot of image processing ahead of me! It's going to take days to get through this lot.

It was also great to see a few Orionids as they streaked through the sky. I didn't see many, because I was mostly looking down and not up, but the ones I saw were bright! One left a streak that took 1-2 seconds to fade away.

A lovely night.. haven't had one like this in a long time.

Orion · #6 21-10-2007, 06:43 AM

By the look out there this morning it seems like it was a bit dewy last night.

Lee · #7 21-10-2007, 07:40 AM

Sounds great Mike - look forward to seeing your images.....
Was very dewy here last night, everything was soaked by 10pm.

Starkler (Geoff) · #8 21-10-2007, 08:08 AM

Yesterday morning I was up before dawn, looking up and thinking that I haven't seen any mars images for a long time. I'll be looking forward to seeing what you got Mike.

xelasnave · #9 21-10-2007, 08:21 AM

Mike I am so happy you had a good night... you obviously lead a busy life and subject to the demands of many in your world so it makes me happy that you got some personal reward.

Isn't it funny how fast the night passes and you find yourself racing to beat the dawn.

Great stuff you deserve some personal payoff.

Good for you.

alex