Aaargh! B****y Clouds!

[pfitzgerald (Paul)]

A two hour drive to Mansfield today and I was looking forward to a nights observing and AP with lovely clear, dark skies. I'd been watching the forecast all week. Initially Fri, Sat and Sun nights were going to be clear. Even this morning tonight was going to be clear.

Scope set up before sunset went OK, watched the ISS go overhead at 8:20 PM (Cool!), performed a 2 star cloud dodging alignment OK. There was some high level cloud to the south so looked at Jupiter and the Moon. The cloud looked like it had cleared so I thought I'd have a go at imaging the Running Chicken nebula. Booted up PHD, which looked like it was doing what it was supposed to, started a five minute test exposure and after 30 seconds PHD started beeping at me - for whatever reason PHD wasn't controlling the scope. Checked all leads etc, quit PHD and then rebooted it and started the guiding process all over again. Same result and now more cloud had appeared. So for tonight I've given up, somewhat in disgust.

However, the ISS was bright, Jupiter and its moons are always a welcome sight as is a 1st Qtr Moon. But for these it has been a frustrating end to a nights viewing and AP that I'd been looking forward to for weeks.

*Sigh*

Paul

PS Any thoughts on what the problem with PHD might have been? (I haven't upgraded to V2.0 yet)

[billdan (Bill)]

Hi Paul,

Same experience as you here in SE QLD, had a 3 hour run going tonight for NGC5128 but darn clouds moved in at 10-00pm, so I only got 45 minutes of data before I packed it away

I would suggest that if PHD is beeping away it will be polar alignment issues. If DEC moves off target too fast it drags RA with it and PHD gives up.

Regards
Bill

[pfitzgerald (Paul)]

Thanks for that Bill - I'll have another go at PA tonight - if there's no cloud! Sorry to hear that your AP session went pear shaped for the same reason.

Paul