Went up to mow some lawns yesterday, aaah sigh ... what a wonderfully frustrating bathroom view I have, a magnificent yet dormant observatory, waiting patiently for a proper first light... can't even poo without being reminded of the frustration
Snow is on the radar for later this week too!
Mike
Last edited by strongmanmike; 31-10-2022 at 11:48 AM.
Well my 5 day astro holiday is nearly over, so glad l only brought binoculars with me.
Nothing but clouds apart from yesterday during the day which was quite nice, sunny and warm.
Drove to Nillahcootie dam which was overflowing about 1ft over the wall then across to Lake Eildon which is letting about 30,000 mega litres a day out and its still filling up by 1cm a day. They only have 11cm more before 100% and the spillway will get wet.
The Goulburn is just crazy, low lying places are going to be wet for weeks to come.
Even walking across the sheep paddock on the side of the hill the is water flowing across the ground a few cm deep because the ground is so saturated, and it's everywhere.
Back to sunny Perth tomorrow to a coved positive house. I should have stayed at work.
At least l got to sit and listen to the Rufous Whistlers (birds) in the garden, amazing song list.
Broke 3 records here yesterday:
lowest air pressure 981mb
highest rain rate 64mm/h
Highest monthly rain 192mm
Plus most disgruntled astronomer.
Have grave doubts about pier integrity now: had to bury a dead sheep, and below 200mm the ground was like wet cement/melted ice-cream.
I 'glued' my huge concrete pier to a large rock base but I may have to add a tilt meter to it!
Broke 3 records here yesterday:
lowest air pressure 981mb
highest rain rate 64mm/h
Highest monthly rain 192mm
Plus most disgruntled astronomer.
Have grave doubts about pier integrity now: had to bury a dead sheep, and below 200mm the ground was like wet cement/melted ice-cream.
I 'glued' my huge concrete pier to a large rock base but I may have to add a tilt meter to it!
Neville
Admiral of LSO
Holy Cow Admiral! Sounds like you may be ok though Sheesh, that'd be right , when (if?) I finally get to image, my pier will look like that famous tower in Pisa...Maama Mia! ...mine is in pretty firm and rocky ground though..
I'm up in the Adelaide Hills, not to far below Mt. Lofty (the highest point), so pretty high (for Adelaide), I give you this for context. Yesterday I had to dig a hole to bury one of our cats and got down about 3 1/2 ft, well into the clay layer, and hit the water table!! In the past I've gone down over 15 ft. without hitting any water, I guess the ground is pretty saturated.
I had clear skies down here last night, so rushed and setup all the gear. (After at least a month of clouds and rain, even seeing the stars was a welcome event.)
Everything was running smoothly, the sequence had just kicked off and I asked "Why is it refocusing?". I then looked up to see nothing but clouds in pretty much all of the sky, and the direction they were moving gave me reason to believe that the show was over for the night. So I packed everything away again.
When my girlfriend got home about half an hour later she said "Why aren't you outside doing astro? It's clear as anything out there."
I had clear skies down here last night, so rushed and setup all the gear. (After at least a month of clouds and rain, even seeing the stars was a welcome event.)
Everything was running smoothly, the sequence had just kicked off and I asked "Why is it refocusing?". I then looked up to see nothing but clouds in pretty much all of the sky, and the direction they were moving gave me reason to believe that the show was over for the night. So I packed everything away again.
When my girlfriend got home about half an hour later she said "Why aren't you outside doing astro? It's clear as anything out there."
Curse the clouds...
I had a similar experience...clouds rolled in, rained on and off from about 5.00pm. About 9.30pm I stuck my head outside and it was clear! Grabbed the mount and was just starting to set up when the fog rolled in!
Cleared up beautifully last night around 9pm with no wind and thought woohoo, in fact sent a jubilant text to the missus to let her know of my anticipatory excitement
Opened up the observatory, some teething fiddling around with getting it all prepared and started but all ready, woohoo Now, the Moon was almost full so, no galaxies sadly, so drove to the LMC, lots in there! looked at a couple of targets beifly, settled on one, framed it nicely, created setup files, sequences, focused, woohoo seeing good, again! , guiding perfect etc a few test exposures to decide on sub length and ta taaaa! Here we gooooo...about to start the first sequence, yeah baby!...."Bong!" guide star lost...look out of dome, cloud rolling in...and I mean "in" ie we are inside the clouds when they roll in oh for goodness sake!
Anyway gave it a bit of time and nup wouldn't go away...sooo F-it!...packed up closed down went to bed around midnight....
Story of many of our lives in this neck of the woods these days I guess..?
So, I've had two sneak peaks at how good it might be one day up here....third time lucky maybe..?
Mike,
Patience is a virtue or is it ?
Don’t worry when you score a perfect clear night you can brag about it for months when we all see your mind blowing image
Sydney town last night was a cracker , I was out til 3.30am on Orion
My guiding was as tight as it’s ever been with the EQ6-R mount 0.48 total with Dec and Ra smooth , there was a bit of dew around in the early hours but my mirrors hung in there thankfully
You are not up high enough Mike. You'll have to move to Chile , or Hawaii.
Cheers, Richard
I've run that option past my wife a couple of times, both times she just stared at me and walked away....
Quote:
Originally Posted by Startrek
Mike,
Patience is a virtue or is it ?
Don’t worry when you score a perfect clear night you can brag about it for months when we all see your mind blowing image
Sydney town last night was a cracker , I was out til 3.30am on Orion
My guiding was as tight as it’s ever been with the EQ6-R mount 0.48 total with Dec and Ra smooth , there was a bit of dew around in the early hours but my mirrors hung in there thankfully
Cheers
Martin
Well both short episodes of imaging done so far at Eagleview have been quite exciting, the sharpness of the data coming down on both nights, all be it brief, looked on screen to be equal to, or better than, the very best nights I experienced at my former observatory north of Canberra.. so that's kinda promising, and only increases the La Nina frustration, especially this time of year in the southern hemisphere, when all those glorious galaxies in Sculptor, Fornax and Eridanus etc are so well placed...arrrggg
The last few weeks have been a good time to pull my Eq6 mount appart and give it a good service clean regrease new bearing its now running better than its ever been we all need clear skies,i think theres a song in that
Sheesh, that'd be right 
I know it will stop one day, won’t it?
Now, the Moon was almost full so, no galaxies sadly, so drove to the LMC, lots in there! looked at a couple of targets beifly, settled on one, framed it nicely, created setup files, sequences, focused, woohoo seeing good, again! 
, guiding perfect 
etc a few test exposures to decide on sub length and ta taaaa! Here we gooooo...about to start the first sequence, yeah baby!...."Bong!" guide star lost...look out of dome, cloud rolling in...and I mean "in" ie we are inside the clouds when they roll in 
, or Hawaii.
so that's kinda promising, and only increases the La Nina frustration, especially this time of year in the southern hemisphere, when all those glorious galaxies in Sculptor, Fornax and Eridanus etc are so well placed...arrrggg 
