After finally getting a couple of clear nights - all thwarted by various failures and data peculiarities that only manifested when I wasn't watching, I tracked down the last remaining bugs and got some beautiful guiding graphs and nice focus v-curves.
Slew to target, fail to plate solve. Wandered outside for more mosquito-plagued problem solving only to discover that some completely unexpected rain was on its way and that clouds had interfered.
So who can I blame for this, and the last 9 months of absolutely crap weather we've had? Someone must have bought a Keck!?
Arrrgh!
And from what I saw in the rubbish I got last night that Sn in NGC 1566 is still going strong.
I bought a couple more ZAO I EPs but I wouldn't have thought that would have been enough to affect the weather and I'm away for a couple more weeks anyway. I blame Curt he's been chomping on the bit and wanting to get out for ages.
well got one good run at ngc 1365 on monday night, left my rig untouched for a run last night and as soon as dusk arrived, i am not sure it was cloud, but there was also a smokey smell a little while later also
pat
Mandurah, less than 100Km South of Perth and the clouds have been replaced with masses of smoke from the seasonal burn-off.
There is no winning this fight...
When I checked the radar last night it was showing some rain offshore Mandurah - so rather than risk it I abandoned my painfully won sub 1 arc minute polar alignment and put it all away.
Of course this morning I woke to blue skies and not a drop in the gauge.
Those who snort with scepticism about the astro equipment weather curse would be well advised to consider that less than a day after my 25" arrived a few years ago, we had 'that hailstorm'. Coincidence? I think not.
Andrew
Missing from Genesis:
And on the eighth day God looked down upon the Earth through clear skies and said:
"Let there be clouds and inclement weather...so that no man shall see me or my works to easily."
And ye it was so, bringing misfortune even upon the Apochromites and Catadoptrites and all their followers until the end of days.
No good gnashing your teeth then!
Missing from Genesis:
And on the eighth day God looked down upon the Earth through clear skies and said:
"Let there be clouds and inclement weather...so that no man shall see me or my works to easily."
And ye it was so, bringing misfortune even upon the Apochromites and Catadoptrites and all their followers until the end of days.
No good gnashing your teeth then!
Nice one
And that is why God created f15 Refractors on EQ mounts and Piiers and wooden tripods so that they could be looked upon in uncertain times, and bring peace to the hearts and minds of Refractorfiles everywhere....
I have to admit I'm surprised at your problems with the weather Andrew! I've had a good run with images 12th, 13th, 14th. Perhaps it's a good thing that I went blindly with the weather forecast and forgot to check the radar?
I have to admit I'm surprised at your problems with the weather Andrew! I've had a good run with images 12th, 13th, 14th. Perhaps it's a good thing that I went blindly with the weather forecast and forgot to check the radar?
Of course the smoke cleared this afternoon so I set it up again, and went to squash. One hour later, full cloud cover so back under cover it all goes.
Funny Matt - here's a picture of my 'sulking chair', to which I have retired with a book and a glass of 18 year old Talisker...
Slainthe
"Apochromites and Catadoptrites" - "Refractorfiles "
Love it !
I think the Apochromites (and Achromamites) are both sub-tribes of the Refractorfiles.
What about the Newtarians with their sub-tribes, the Trussletites and Tubaliarians ?
The original tribe was indeed the Refractorfiles.
The Refractorfiles begat the Achromamites. The Achromamites begat the Apochromites.
Interesting that the tribe now known as the Newtarians appeared some centuries after the Achromamites. (This may have been an act of political dissent?)
The Newtarians begat the Tubalarians. The Tubalarians begat the Trussletites. Severally and together the Tubalarians and the Trussletites begat the Dobsenites.
In a final act to heal past rifts the Achromamites and the Newtarians begat the Catadoptrites. All to no avail as the various tribes are found today engaged in endless arguments of astronomical proportions.
The tribal fates are perhaps best described in a poem written by one of their own:
Rings around Uranus
Big J and Saturn to,
Even on a misty night
A ring around the Moon.
Forever getting smaller
Until finally you find,
Your back here at Uranus
And leave the world behind...
I have resisted buying anything astro for the last year but yielded to temptation the last couple of weeks. Back in Perth this weekend with goodies waiting to be open {once my wife finishes lecturing me about the inconvenience of picking up postage parcels}. Not surprising the weather bureau is predicting heavy rainfall for southern wa this weekend
Nice one
)
