Hi everyone. Well, it's still a lottery but it's been such a long time between good new moon nights that we really are due for a good one on Saturday 16th. If the skies are clear, I'll open the gates for Friday 15th as well, and even SundaY 17th for the seriously deprived.
Let me know if you're planning on making the trip.
Peter.
Peter your dates are a day out, Saturday is the 15th Sunday is the 16th
Cheers
I hope you are all outside tonight. Isn't it beautiful for a change? I've got the ED127 going on NGC3579 and a little ED80 doing widefields on EtaC. Later, after I've stoked the fires a little, I'm going to do widefields of RhoOph/Antares and an as-yet-unknown target. Spoilt for choice - what a luxury.
Peter
My neighbours automatic light keeps coming on. It won't effect the imaging though....i hope.
Damn suburbia.
Did I mention the corner street light too?? The house blocks it, but it's still there. Giving all my images to the north a lovely light gradient.
The only consolation is that the sky is still relatively dark.
sorry, I just needed to vent
The night is really very nice. The seeing is good and my camera is clicking away in the back ground.
For those interested, I'm going to open the place this Friday as well as Saturday. I'm planning on getting a bit fancy this weekend and am going to try using a Ha filter with my QHY8 to get some details of the filaments of nebulosity around NGC3579 to add to a few hours of colour I already have.
The weather looks good and the seeing likewise.
Here's a taste of what I'm chasing by the way. it's 4 hours of straight colour but I'm hoping the Ha gives me more. Bring it on.
Skippy suggets that big stuff is coming in from the Arafura Sea and the NW generally and will arrive this weekend. Sounds wet to me. Thursday and Friday both looking clear though. Saturday is probably clear at this stage but it could be a near thing.
Peter
Pete, I'm still hoping to get up there Friday arvo well before peak hour then home for the bosses birthday on Saturday. Ron tells me my eq6 should be back from tasco this week and I have a new 10" scope and a new qhy9 to first light. I hope I remember how to work all this stuff, it's been a while
Pete, I'm still hoping to get up there Friday arvo well before peak hour then home for the bosses birthday on Saturday. Ron tells me my eq6 should be back from tasco this week and I have a new 10" scope and a new qhy9 to first light. I hope I remember how to work all this stuff, it's been a while
What a beauty that was. Worth the wait and then some.
Hope you all managed to get some of it.
I did a side-by-side with the 127 and a QHY8 on one and an 80mm and another QHY8 on the other with a UHC-S filter on it. That was fun.
I did a few hours on NGC6559 and you'll see the difference - the widefield actually picks up the bottom of M8 as well. But have a look at the area between Antares and RhoOphiuchus.
I haven't subtracted any flats yet (I forgot to take some) so I'll do that tomorrow but for now, overlook the dust motes and cop the colours.
I hope this clear cold weather holds for a few more days.
They are great shots Peter. The weather last night in Brissy was wonderful. Lets hope Saturday night is as good.
See you then Geoff
Hi folks. Well, last night (Friday) was OK up till about midnight but then high cloud started to come in from the N-W and that was the end of it.
A quick look at Skippy Sky says those high clouds are here to stay for a while so my present (as in 10.30 a.m.) expectation is for very poor conditions tonight.
I'll check back in about 2-3 p.m. and see how it is then but right now I'm a bit sanguine about the prospects for the night.
Well, it looks like the honeymoon is over. The clouds are coming in - high cloud at the moment but useless for any kind of astro work I think - and much, much more coming in behind. Sorry Matt and Geoff but I think we'd better cancel tonight.
Would you reply to this so I know you've got the message. Thanks.
Amazing how the weather can vary across such short distances.
We had a few bits of high cloud across the Southern sky around 9:30pm at Blackbutt last night, but after that it cleared up. We kept inconveniencing photons and electrons until 02:30am! A bit tired right now.
Hi Peter, My names Peter also i have been away from this forum for a couple of years and am a bit rusty, but i am looking for a good visual observing spot to take my telescope and get back into astronomy.My wife and i are now living back in North Brisbane as we have just moved from Toowooomba.
Could you tell me a bit about your observing site and if we could join your observing group?
Regards, Peter.
