Did anyone else take advantage of the clear skies last night?
I was out with the gear and everything was working fine until the meridian flip (Oooh! First one ever. Much excitement!) put my guide scope into the moon light and it all turned to crap after that...
So I still have a few bugs to work out before I'll be happy with everything, but hey, that's the way this hobby works, right?
Now to do all the processing and to see what comes out the other end of the sausage factory.
Well Melbourne weather has yet again given the proverbial middle finger for an Astronomical event, so I guess the Lunar Eclipse will be missed here. The irony is that tomorrow night is reported to be clear.
We just had rain, hail and flooding of biblical proportion .. ok .. I am being melodramatic, but you do need a canoe to traverse the water over the road. Time to consider moving back to Perth ... or sell all the Astro gear.
Well at least it was clear in the Central West of NSW last night and made for great viewing of the lunar eclipse. No photography from me last night as I wanted to just enjoy the visual spectacle. Sometimes I feel that one just needs to get out from behind the lens and enjoy the view I did have a look at the eclipsed moon near totality through my 15 x 70 binoculars which was quite special. The darkened moon could be seen floating in space against a backdrop of stars which normally wouldn’t be visible due to the brightness of the full moon. It was really quite eerie how it looked to be just hanging there in space. I left the session feeling very pleased with myself
Went to the obs just after the eclipse started, spent time taking camera photos to share with the kids, 80km away in clouded-out Canberra.
Got the dome rotating in sync with the scope, although it went haywire and I had to go back to manual. At least I can get it to go 'home' by itself. This was the first time I've got that far.
Got NINA AF going gang-busters on the ZWO and ED80 refractor. Again, a first, with HFR of 2.3 and compliance of 9.7. Another first!
I got a lot of so-far unprocessed shots of Moon & Jupiter, then moved over to M42 and again, lovely imaging available for me to muck up.
Then I thought, The Horsey isn't far away, so had a shot at it. By now it was 2.00am and I was cold and tired, but it came out of the background in two 120s mono shots with the CE filter.
First time for that, too!
During the evening the dew came up, the cables got tangles and stopped the scope, the QHY cameras (OSC imager and mono guider) kept getting into arguments, Celestron focuser would drop out, dome slaving failed and I got cold.
Went to the obs just after the eclipse started, spent time taking camera photos to share with the kids, 80km away in clouded-out Canberra.
Got the dome rotating in sync with the scope, although it went haywire and I had to go back to manual. At least I can get it to go 'home' by itself. This was the first time I've got that far.
Got NINA AF going gang-busters on the ZWO and ED80 refractor. Again, a first, with HFR of 2.3 and compliance of 9.7. Another first!
I got a lot of so-far unprocessed shots of Moon & Jupiter, then moved over to M42 and again, lovely imaging available for me to muck up.
Then I thought, The Horsey isn't far away, so had a shot at it. By now it was 2.00am and I was cold and tired, but it came out of the background in two 120s mono shots with the CE filter.
First time for that, too!
During the evening the dew came up, the cables got tangles and stopped the scope, the QHY cameras (OSC imager and mono guider) kept getting into arguments, Celestron focuser would drop out, dome slaving failed and I got cold.
Best night I've had for years!
Neville Ex-admiral of LSO
Loved reading that Admiral, read it twice actually, just to savour imagining being there with you, look fowardt to seeing your mucked up results I noted my CCTV camera at Eagleview was icing over, so, it must have been clear up there too I must install my Occulus Pro ASAP, so I can check the cky properly...lazy ******* I am...
December to February rainfall is likely (greater than 60% chance) to be above median for large parts of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and eastern Tasmania. Northern Queensland has at least twice the average chance of unusually high rainfall. Below median rainfall is likely for large parts of Western Australia and the western Top End.
I blame harmonic drives.
All I've been hearing is harmonic drives this, harmonic drives that.
I've had my SWSa GTi for about 2 months and l can't remember the last time l used it.
Still cloudy her in the west.
I had to leave home quite early this morning. The attached image (from a camera 'phone, and illuminated by my lights) shows the space where the ford across the creek should be. If you look carefully at the far side of the waters edge, you'll see two rectangular shiny points. Those are the backs of the speed zone signs, that are almost two metres high...
The previous evening before the storm hit you could have walked across the ford and not gotten your feet wet! What the image cannot show is the sheer speed with which the water was moving.
It's not much different to that now as I type. I can't imagine how much rain we had last night...
Everything worked perfectly and I was up all night and finally turned on the genny at 4 am so I could go thru the data from all three scopes...unfortunately by this time I was sortta fainting, presumably a negative effect from my meds, so I only did some ruff stacking in both Deep Sky Stacker and Astro Pixel Processor to get a feel for the returns on the effort...but I was losing control and starving so I turned off the genny and fell asleep..I only woke up a little while ago had four frozen sausages and a frozen coke and no signs of fainting at all now but I am going to try and get more sleep as it may be good tonight.
Bah!!, a trickle, just take a long run up and slam through it! Wooooosh! she be right mate....
No, no just kidding don't do that
Mike
Considering that it turned about a 30 minute trip into one that was well over an hour, I won't say the thought didn't cross my mind; but no - I've seen too many people come unstuck over the years.
And what's the weather like while I'm stuck at home this evening? Low overcast, of course...
Everything worked perfectly and I was up all night and finally turned on the genny at 4 am so I could go thru the data from all three scopes...unfortunately by this time I was sortta fainting, presumably a negative effect from my meds, so I only did some ruff stacking in both Deep Sky Stacker and Astro Pixel Processor to get a feel for the returns on the effort...but I was losing control and starving so I turned off the genny and fell asleep..I only woke up a little while ago had four frozen sausages and a frozen coke and no signs of fainting at all now but I am going to try and get more sleep as it may be good tonight.
Alex
Show off! ...you are a fighter Alex, Ill give you that!...and I hope you cooked the sausages and defrosted the coke before consuming them
Show off! ...you are a fighter Alex, Ill give you that!...and I hope you cooked the sausages and defrosted the coke before consuming them
Mike
The sausages were cooked but my little fridge freezes stuff rather fast...I am usually much better set up but been occupied so no pizza etc on hand.
Well I have pulled up rather well and it is another perfect night tonight with all three scopes running but I plan a two hour nap now and will have something to eat when I wake up ...I have the security cameras set up so I can feel comfortable being able to check on things while in bed...
Ah good on ya La Nina, now you have been so kind as to deliver some snow this morning up at Eagleview, mid November, oh joooy... tooo the Wooorld, La Nina iiis come!....bloody La Nina, someone should blow La Nina's up! (Ted Bullpit C1983)
A good chance of some clear skies up there Thurs and Fri at this stage...can only hope, I'll be waiting with my beast grrrrr, ready to pounce!
I did have a look at the eclipsed moon near totality through my 15 x 70 binoculars which was quite special. The darkened moon could be seen floating in space against a backdrop of stars which normally wouldn’t be visible due to the brightness of the full moon. It was really quite eerie how it looked to be just hanging there in space. I left the session feeling very pleased with myself 
.
I noted my CCTV camera at Eagleview was icing over, so, it must have been clear up there too 
I must install my Occulus Pro ASAP, so I can check the cky properly...lazy ******* I am...
...you are a fighter Alex, Ill give you that!...and I hope you cooked the sausages and defrosted the coke before consuming them 
