Uranus 23rd August

[davidpretorius]

Hi all,

Trans: 5
Seeing: III

What a beautiful night, made a serious attempt tonight to get some serious eyepiece work happening with the super series 5000000000's from Andrews

Mike and Asimov will be happy that the toucam did not come out to play unti l the end.

M71, dumbbell, m7,m6,m8, m4,m8, m17 - lovely time with the ultrawide and then the 12mm and 6.5mm to finish off. seeing was good for the series 500 6.5mm to be useful.

I have been tempted for a while to try for uranus.... at 12.30am, it was close to north, so i thought, why not...started at homan and treked upwards. using the ultrawide, i was holding my breath so that after 10 minutes, i knew i was getting close. starry night with the aprox fov set for my ep's help and also inverting x-y, z axis to look like the eyepiece.

Double check with starry night pro and there she was, with a bluish tinge.

Hmmmmmm, toucam time!!!!!

first avi was with 25fps, br 50%, sat 100%, gamma 0%, gain 100%, mag 208X and after registax it, decreasing the brightness in PS and then aprox 2x the image, i got the image.

A test was in order and thus i turned on all auto settings and captured a vid that i could get you guys to check me

I believe the star at 4oclock is USNO J2243529-085507 which matches up with starry night pro at 6.5mm fov

avi video of manual settings for making image(62k)

http://www.precons.com/iis/gallery/M...ranus_0000.avi

avi video at auto settings to pick up star for checking (526k)

http://www.precons.com/iis/gallery/M...ranus_0002.avi

what a lovely night.

mental note: must get a dew shield for finder scope.

[asimov (John)]

I do believe you got her mate! Well done!!

Next is Neptune!!

Your 1 up on me...I've never seen the Dumbbell....yet. Looks like I have to move to Tassie to get some decent weather!? Supposed to be clearing up in the next few days here though (touch wood) I'm gettin' cabin fever so it BETTER!!!

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Good on you Davo ... I remember the first time i saw Uranus.
I found it using my Dob and printed charts for the Telrad from CDC.
Found Neptune in the same way.
Its one thing to find them in the Go-To & wonder "Is that it or is it a bluish star"
much more satisfying tracking it down & knowing from using the charts you have it.
PS: Saw a great -5 Mag Iridium flare this morning !

[iceman (Mike)]

Nice work Dave! I saw Uranus and Neptune for the first time at the last Kulnura meet-up, Uranus was great! A very nice greeney blue disc, very distinct!

[ving (David)]

its all about the hunt. well done finding it dave

[davidpretorius]

yes it was very exciting, the finder was dewing up and hard to see, i was spot on and methodical, calm even as i worked my way closer. then as i was getting near, the preciseness of moving the scope dissolved, i stopped breathing.

it is a real buzz

[Comet Hunter]

Nice work Dave. One thing I like about Uranus and Neptune is their difference in colouration from Jupiter and Saturn.