Jacob and Abbey were in bed, Kate was out with Eliza, had the place to myself, skies were clear, scope was out cooling..
Not much to image - no big planets, no moon, no nice bright globs in a position where I can see them..
hmm, how about another go at Uranus and Neptune..
The seeing was GOOD! Best i've seen it in ages. Ambient didn't drop too low so the temperature difference was minimal. No jetstream, no moon, things looking promising after my last frustrating efforts.
I started with Neptune, since it was up higher. Used starry night pro and finderscope to locate it in the Pentax 7mm XW, a typical view, pale blue/green tiny disc. Centered it in the eyepiece.
Using the frustrating experience last time as learnings, I started with the lowest power barlow (2x), gain at max, exposure at 1/4s. Put in the DMK with the filterwheel on the empty slot (to allow max light in). hmm, nothing. wobble the scope around a bit, ah huh! There it is. Nudge pull push, get the tiny planet into the centre of the FOV. Exchange the 2x for the 3x, doh! No planet. Nudge push pull zoom, there it goes. Get it back in the centre.
Managed to get a few RGB avi's of Neptune (my first time ever!) with the 3x barlow, at both 1/8s and 1/4s exposures, capturing for 1 minute on each colour channel.
Turned my attention to Uranus.. this was much easier as I could actually see it in the finderscope. Looked quite nice in the Pentax 7mm, a bigger pale blue/green disc
Again started with the 2x to get it in the FOV, much easier this time. Jumped to the 3x straight away and took 2 avi's again at 1/8s and 1/4s exposures, same capture time (1 minute each colour channel).
Feeling confident now, centered the planet in the CCD and threw in the 5x powermate! Took me a minute but a little nudging and refocusing with a 1/2s exposure and found the disc. It was brighter than I expected, I think the quality of the powermate is showing through.
Took 2 avi's with the 5x powermate, an LRGB at 1/4s and an RGB at 1/2s. Again 1 minute captures for each channel.
So i'm very happy!
My first ever avi's of Neptune, and my 2nd Uranus session, this time with some larger scale with the 5x powermate. My first effort was with the
3x barlow a few weeks ago.
The seeing was very good, too.. I really wished Jupiter or Saturn was up!
Anyway, Kate's now home, time to pack it in.. but a very successful night so far. Can't wait to process those avi's.
Thanks for listening to my story
