that of course followed marking of a few exam papers (which I promptly got out of after the 3rd and 4th pages of the answer sheets were missing) so by 9pm I had the night to myself. I setup in the backyard wishing I was at kulnura with the other guys who will no doubt rub my nose in it for a good time and viewing they had.
the gear - well the trusty eq6 with the new V3 hand controller, the 5" MC as a guide scope and the ed80 with my 350D piggybacked on it and the 300d in the ed80, dew straps galore and a 200mm L series F2.8 lens and a Russian fish-eye lens. I must say the V3 takes a little gettng used to coming from the v2 controller, however it was accurate and 3 star alignment worked well.
Having been up the night before till 1 and then back up at 3.30-4.00 the morning, I will admit I was tired. But hey push on I say!! So I pushed too hard, staying awake through till after 5 this morning. I saw crappy conditions, with moments of great seeing. mainly the night air was moisture riddled and it showed, the skyglow was severe. as luck would have it I didn't catch any Leonid's in the camera, with them appearing after a 2minute shot was done, but I saw some pearlers. between shots. Very fast and man were they bright, but not consistent or many (I only counted 12 the whole night).
with the canon lens, that saw first light last night, as too the Russian fish-eye lens (first time I really used it). The wife said to me this morning when I went to bed, did I have a raging party by myself, in a way I did, although company would have been great just to share the experience
Oh and BTW the last image is an example of not what to do, no polar alignment, no drift alignment, poor manual tracking crappy, skyglow, field rotation and poor digital developement
BTW thanks for the offer, see you in January!
