Optimistic about tonight!

[iceman (Mike)]

The sky is mostly clear, the wind has mostly died down, and I've just spent 30 minutes setting up the DSO imaging rig.

It's the first clear night in about 5 nights, and the only clear night predicted for the next 7, so I'm remaining optimistic about my chances tonight.. and the moon doesn't rise until very early morning!

I'm going to try and get autoguiding working tonight.. fingers crossed!

[Tamtarn]

Very envious of your chance to image Mike.

Good luck with your auto guiding, will look forward to your results.

[Ric]

All the best Mike, hope you get a good night in.

I'm totally clouded in down here, probably a telly night for me.

Cheers

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Good luck Mike. Catch a few for me, it's not looking promising here.

[iceman (Mike)]

Thanks guys, so far so good.

I even taped a counterweight on the front of the ED80 to balance the camera

I'll even take a break from the Orion region at about 1:30 and try and setup to catch the unseen (by me) comet Holmes!

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

The best of luck with that Mike.

[iceman (Mike)]

hmm don't like the look of those clouds..

This might be one of those times that Stuart and Paul talked about last week.. get everything set up, ready to go, and then the clouds roll in..

[Lee]

You're a brave man Mike.....
Best of luck!
All I need here is a clear Western sky for 15 minutes, I just want to see LONEOS tonight - but no.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

I think I saw a small patch of blue between the fast moving cloud and rain here!

I got optimistic for 0.192 milliseconds!

Good luck Mike.

You'll be the only one out there.

[iceman (Mike)]

Well clouds almost filled the sky

But it's still patchy enough that I can test guiding... and, it works!

PHD Guiding is a snap! So easy!

Doing some test exposures now, but I doubt i'll be able to image anything real.

[Terry B]

Originally Posted by iceman

Well clouds almost filled the sky

But it's still patchy enough that I can test guiding... and, it works!

PHD Guiding is a snap! So easy!

Doing some test exposures now, but I doubt i'll be able to image anything real.

A mix of cloud, clear skies and wind here. Not worth the effort. Have you tried guidemaster for guiding instead of PHD? I have both installed and vary between them. I like the graphic display of the guide star that guidemaster gives you and have found that my guideing is better than with PHD. This might just be because it is easier to set the aggressiveness with guidemaster.

[iceman (Mike)]

No, I've only ever tried PHD. So far so good.

I've just lined up with NGC253 ready for a test 10 minute exposure, and of course there's clouds blocking it now

[iceman (Mike)]

Sky is crystal clear, except for low on the horizon.

But now the wind has really picked up again.. If it stays clear, i'm chasing Holmes down!

[iceman (Mike)]

ahh the cloud is coming back! It's going to ruin my images of NGC1365 and the fornax cluster!

I've got about 3 minutes before my object is covered!

And it's only an hour from comet time!

[Outbackmanyep]

Hang in there Mike!
Look at the BOM sat images, you'll see clear skies behind that cloud yur getting!
Id stay out! Its really cleared up here, almost crystal, except for that bloody wind blowing....
As long as the wind blows the clouds go with it!

As Scotty from Star Trek says " I canna give ya any more, captain!"

[h0ughy (David)]

2 hours mike

[iceman (Mike)]

hmm clouded out now, nevermind gives me a chance to take some darks.

Still hoping it will clear for the comet in the next hour.

[§AB]

absolutely clear here now so might get lucky! No work tonight so yeah might take the 10" out. Only problem is that with my night job sleep has been at a premium so I feel like s**t during the day and will probably end up sleeping instead.