Hi all
Last night I went to a BBQ at a mates place at Bollaroo, and then set up in an area he had cleared at the back of his place, on Munibung Hill, which is somewhat darker than my place. I forgot my cardboard dewcap, and it was VERY dewy, even the refractor with its dewcap eventually fogged up. I was able to get off 2 quick 5 min shots of Eta carina, ISO800, only uv/ir filter. 6 ich f3.6 SN, Baader MPCC. Modded 350D. Apart from the dew it was great, Ed bought his 18 incher, and we even had 2540V with Internet access, with patrick rolling out a LONG power lead from his garage, and I could still access his Wireless AP with my laptop
As usual I used the Q guider to hand guide a star put on the laptop screen. The corrector plate was fogged by the end of the exposures, and some patch cloud was a nuisance. In wintertime the westerlies are much drier, I look fowards to more deeper imaging from there.
Id left the camera attached to the 6 inch SN from a few nights back, so was able to use flats from then for this image.
This is the best unfiltered image Ive yet taken with the 6 inch of Eta Carina neb. Ony 10 mins total too
The whole rig when broken down fits in my mums tiny 3 door Nissan Micra, and if theres no power available the mount will run off 12V drawing just 0.35A, so can either use a small SLA bettery, or the car battery. The only issue is the laptop, but the Dell model I have has a larger then standard battery, with around 4 hours of guiding time available.
Scott
)
and the novelty of the views over Newcastle wear off and the imaging bug starts to niggle at me again I will need to work something out.....I just don't look forward to packing and unpacking, travelling, setting up and pulling down all this rig:
