About 1am I went out to the observatory to start an imaging run and the smoke hit me as soon as i opened the door. The sky was dull and you can see the smoke haze around the street lights in the distance. Luckily the observatory has a manual opening roof and it did not seem to smell to badly of smoke inside. I decided to bring the scope and camera back in the house to be safe. Obviously that kills the nights activities, which had looked so promising earlier. Luckily my scope has a tight fitting cap on the big end and the camera was mounted on the rear already, so no possibility of smoke on the optics.
I suppose the smoke came from the Karuah, Nelson Bay, and Cessnock fires.
