Peter,
It is great to hear it is all coming along, look forward to trying out one of the pads. Unfortunately Matt and I will not be making it up this weekend all the best for fine weather and conditions. I expect we will catch up with you at Astrofest for the next New Moon.
I'm unlikely to get there this weekend thanks Peter.
Currently struggling to get clearance to attend Astrofest, and very unlikely I'll be able to get away this weekend. Looking forward to seeing the new gear though when able to get there.
Here is the first finished pad. Assuming Dave Gregor and I did the solar noon thing properly, and assuming your tripod legs are equally extended, you should be able to pop your scope straight into these 2 grooves and be within a bee's knees of being on the SCP.
Peter.
I may make it up on the weekend - depending on the disposition of my own Obergruppenfuhrer. Skippy Sky is not looking too good though.
I am having...shall we say ....issues with my mount at the moment, and would love to get a few things sorted out once and for all.....even if it is just to have the mount melted down to make a good counter-weight.
Here is the first finished pad. Assuming Dave Gregor and I did the solar noon thing properly, and assuming your tripod legs are equally extended, you should be able to pop your scope straight into these 2 grooves and be within a bee's knees of being on the SCP.
Peter.
You might wanna check that with a compass, it's about 5 degrees right of the milking shed which is where I normally point to start with. Any chance of a target to adjust altitude by
We actually had 3 compasses - 2 old fashioned and one digital - and they couldn't agree at all. That's why we did the string-line at solar noon thing. Those digital compasses are a complete waste of space and unless you spend up big a normal compass strugglers to find your foot. Perhaps it's just me!!
Yeah, weather turning to soup again. Looks like another non-event coming up doesn't it?
I'll "declare" late morning tomorrow in case something dramatic happens - but I sure don't expect it.
Well Skippy is less pessimistic. It says a clear night until about midnight. Last night gave us several good clear hours out here, surprisingly, and then clouded up about midnight. I actually got to open up the roof and have a play with the DK for a while.
Peter
Yes - I managed to get a few hours in last night.
Tonight looking very tricky again to call....
There's some crazy air and moisture movements going on (as usual...)
...There's some crazy air and moisture movements going on (as usual...)
That's one way of putting it! "Expletive deleted" weather is another.
It's tried to drizzle here over the past half hour or so and the wind is from the NE and pushing moist cloud ahead of it by the looks. SKippy says it'll clear so I'll leave it to individual discretion. Even on a best-case, we won't get much sky past about midnight and who can say whether the wind will drop off. It usually does but famous last words are made of this. Let me know if you're coming.
It's clearing over Kilcoy. But as the clouds leave us, the fog is rising.
Seeing is dismal too.
I won't be dragging the scope out, but the bino's will get some use tonight.
Thanks almost entirely to Dave Gregor, we now have 2 pads in place. We did the second one yesterday. The clouds didn't give me a decent string-line shot at solar noon so there is no official SCP pointer in place on #2 yet. However, there is a special mark in the concrete for Robin with an arrow pointing towards the 'milking shed'.
I'll paint on a SCP and baseline once I can get a decent shadow.
Peter.
