Planetary Imaging Camp - Nambucca, end June 2008 - Page 2

AlexN · #21 12-06-2008, 11:08 PM

The weather is really going to be the decider for me... Im so very keen to come, but not so keen on driving 7.5hrs to see clouds...

iceman (Mike) · #22 23-06-2008, 08:28 AM

Anthony is at Nambucca now, and from all reports it's a lovely place. Beautiful position right on the headland looking over the beach. The cabins are nice, have an outdoor BBQ with power right nearby where we'll setup our scopes, and he's using his telescope to watch whales spashing around as they migrate north for the winter.

The weather reports are for great weather all week for him.

I'm really looking forward to joining him on Saturday. I hope the good weather continues into next week, and I can't wait to do both astrophotography and normal photography..

Comet Boattini, the milky way, Jupiter, the Moon, sunrises and sunsets, whales.. I wish I could've gone for the whole 2 weeks!

Gotta start planning what i'm going to take..

Anyone else planning to join us?

bird (Anthony Wesley) · #23 24-06-2008, 10:33 AM

A quick update from Nambucca Heads...

Got here lunchtime Saturday, a lovely sunny day and a nice location! Unpacked the car and headed to Coffs to collect Leisa from the plane. It was a lovely clear night on Saturday evening, lots of people staying here came down for a look through the scope. The seeing wasn't predicted to be very good, and it probably got to 5/10 at best.

Sunday was another clear day, spent it moving the scope to a better spot, putting up more tarps to block the wind, did some exploring. The new location for the scope gave a good view of the ocean and we spent most of the afternoon whale watching with my 30mm ep. Overkill maybe, but we got some lovely close views of humpbacks jumping about a k or so off the coast. Sunday evening the seeing was better, maybe 6/10.

Monday was clear (again). Spent the day tinkering with the scope, making some software changes, finding a better way to get 240v power to the scope. Went for a long walk around the headland and down to the beach and back.

Some high cloud moved in on dusk and threatened to spoil the party. Had a nice look at Saturn just after sunset. The high cloud turned into a thin haze that covered the whole sky, but around midnight Jupiter was high enough that I was able to record some data at about 50% transparency. The seeing was good though, maybe 8/10. The wind had dropped further and wasn't a problem to the scope.

Tuesday: so far the sky is clear and there's no wind. A carbon copy so far of the other days. Hoping the sky will be clear tonight as the seeing is predicted to improve all through this week.

cheers, Bird

iceman (Mike) · #24 27-06-2008, 10:05 AM

Well my little hyundai excel is packed with my 12" newt, EQ6, side-by-side widefield ED80 scopes, all the bits and pieces, counter weights, batteries, cases etc. Just clothes and miscellaneous indoor stuff to go. The car is full!

Anthony reported BRILLIANT seeing on wednesday night. Very jealous I was. I've been out every night this week at home and the seeing has been rubbish EVERY NIGHT. Very very frustrating.

Let's hope for more steady conditions after tomorrow night!

I'll be there around midday tomorrow.

Anyone else coming to join us?

iceman (Mike) · #25 28-06-2008, 03:20 PM

Well I arrived about 90 minutes ago, an uneventful trip up.

It's an absolutely beautiful spot, here. Have already seen a few whales splashing about - will have to point the scope at them soon.

Weather looks good for the next few days at least, hopefully all week. Lots of things I want to see and do (and photograph).

I'm sure i'll get time to sleep sometime in between.. I almost didn't come up today - I came down with a nasty virus yesterday and was in bed most of the day and night. Felt ok this morning so here I am.

Anyway off to the shops to get some supplies!

iceman (Mike) · #26 28-06-2008, 07:54 PM

So far so good on night 1.

After drift aligning i'm taking some images of the Swan nebula with my 350D before Jupiter rises high enough to image.

Through the eyepiece in Anthony's scope, Jupiter is already looking quite good at the low altitude. Hopefully a sign of good seeing tonight!

AlexN · #27 28-06-2008, 07:57 PM

Its clouded over here in brisbane and I am the most unbelievable shade of green with envy of you guys down there...

My boss made me work 10hrs from 4-2pm today. which was not fun, and another 10 to come on monday... Otherwise I would be there with you enjoying the magnificent views

iceman (Mike) · #28 28-06-2008, 11:09 PM

Halfway through the first night..

The seeing is reasonably good on Jupiter, but a stiff breeze is giving me troubles both in shaking the scope and sending Jupiter flying off the FOV, and also deteriorating the seeing. When the breeze settles, the GRS, Oval BA and the 3rd red spot look nice. Europa came out from behind Jupiter and is now scooting away.

I captured 6 x 400s on M17 (the swan) with the widefield imaging setup, and now the camera is on the tripod doing some startrails in the north looking towards Coffs Harbour.

The night is still young, hopefully this breeze will die down soon.

iceman (Mike) · #29 29-06-2008, 09:48 AM

Well it was a beautiful first night - crystal clear all night. Though the wind proved to be the downfall for the seeing. It never peaked as we hoped it would, but when the wind settled it showed glimpses of promise.

Nevermind, let's hope for tonight. Without the wind!

Got some images of some lovely northern startrails and comet boattini. I tried for Mercury this morning but at 10deg altitude it was a bit of a waste of time. Oh well.

Lovely day outside, time to get out in it.

iceman (Mike) · #30 30-06-2008, 12:30 AM

Has been a great day, an absolutely beautiful day on the mid north coast. Nice warm temperatures, feels like Spring! I went for a long walk along the beach, v-wall and through the town this morning, then back into town for lunch with Anthony.. Must've walked 5-7klms today.

Now it's the middle of the 2nd night, and man it has been a great night.

A very strong on-shore breeze in the afternoon and early evening had us worried, but we were also hoping that as it died down, a nice laminar on-shore flow would provide some very good seeing.

And it hasn't disappointed.

Even when Jupiter was only 15deg, through the eyepiece it was excellent. It started off pretty good with the CCD in, and got better as the night has gone on with periods of superb seeing - looks to be the best i've had all year.

Anthony and I are full of oohs and aahs and the odd expletive thrown in as the seeing steadies to see details in the raw frames that we usually only see in processed images. It's just been an amazing night.

It's also been very interesting to compare our side by side views on the laptop - Anthony's raw images show much more consistent clarity, and we agree that it's due to:
a) my lack of active cooling and the tube currents
b) his more sensitive and less noisy camera

It's also so great to see his setup in action, 1 click to start recording, and it changes filters and re-focus and it's recording the next channel in the space of 1.5 seconds.

Anyway time for a meridian flip, let's hope the seeing continues on the other side!

AlexN · #31 30-06-2008, 12:37 AM

best of luck for the night fellas! sounds awesome... I've just finished my runs over jupiter for tonight.. seeing as gone a bit like jelly here..

Dennis · #32 30-06-2008, 08:23 AM

Thanks for all the reports guys - it would make for a great book on "adventures in astronomy" and inspire many young ones to take up the hobby!

A very interesting side-by-side comparison between the 2 rigs Mike – excellent write up.

Cheers

Dennis

Outbackmanyep · #33 30-06-2008, 01:12 PM

Hi Mike!
When are you all going home?? I might be able to make it down this Saturday afternoon (5th July). Might stay in Coffs or i'll try for accommodation in Nambucca Heads.
Cheers!

iceman (Mike) · #34 30-06-2008, 02:25 PM

Hey Chris, i'm leaving on Friday. It's Kate's birthday on the 5th so I'd better be home by then!

Outbackmanyep · #35 30-06-2008, 04:26 PM

Bugger! Not to worry! I hope to catch up at the IISAC, i'll pop in for a day or something like that! Might stay a night then!

Cheers!

iceman (Mike) · #36 01-07-2008, 05:42 AM

Dennis I wish you could've come down!

Chris, that's a shame - hopefully see you at IISAC though.

Ongoing report..

Yesterday we went for a walk into town for a nice breakfast at a local cafe and then headed into Coffs for some shopping. It was time to finally fit the active cooling system to my scope that Dave Pretorius kindly made for me. So first stop was Dick Smith for the bits and pieces.

With a bit of filing, screwing and taping, my scope now has active cooling! I ran it for an hour or so yesterday afternoon and the mirror temperature dropped by about 5 deg, so it's working very well.

Unfortunately the seeing was shocking last night so I didn't get to test it out under real imaging conditions but hopefully it will improve tonight.

I spent the night getting some widefield milkyway images and then catching up on some much needed sleep. Up early this morning for comet boattini again and a lovely crescent moon.

Hope the seeing improves tonight! Jetstream looks horrible though

bird (Anthony Wesley) · #37 01-07-2008, 09:39 AM

The weather here has been very consistent - clear, sunny days with almost zero breeze. Leisa went home on Saturday (she has to work this week) and lat night reported heavy rain and strong winds in Canberra, seems like a world away compared to the idyllic conditions outside the cabin here this morning...

As Mike reported, seeing last night was awful, but the upside was that we both got some sleep after a very long night on Sunday evening. I recorded just over 250Gb on Sunday night of data, starting at 9pm and ending at 3.30am. The seeing was consistently good throughout the night with a few exceptional periods.

Here's hoping the jetstream is somewhere else tonight and we can get the GRS - there's interesting stuff happening with the "little red spot" starting to circle around and looks like its going to go between the grs and Oval BA in a few days time!

Bird

matt · #38 01-07-2008, 09:52 AM

Good luck fellas.

I hope you get excellent conditions soon and really load up on some great data

davidpretorius · #39 01-07-2008, 08:21 PM

two planetary peas in a pod

wish i was there.... one year

AlexN · #40 01-07-2008, 09:27 PM

Next time you guys are heading to that location for some planetary imaging i'm coming for sure... Theres no way im missing out again!