At Last

[beren]

Finally got a chance to do some driveway observing last night under great conditions , although extemely cold and dewy the sky was clear and devoid of any threating cloud cover . Not wanting to jinx this change of fortune i didnt give any thought on any observing/imaging plans during the afternoon , spontenous can be good sometimes
Unfortunately the wife saw me in my new thermal longjohns/top in preperation for the brisk evening , ignoring the taunts i had the gear set up in quick time during dusk . The conjuction was blocked by houses/trees , i could only see 2 , dont think i have ever sighted mercury .
Ditched the idea of doing any imaging , two cold to be sitting watching a stopwatch although i got some piggyback shots in {lagoon/triffid neb, M7 scoripion tail , crux and the pointers} . Tried sighting comet temple with the RA/dec supllied by heavens above , no luck visually or with the camera , hopefully the night of the 4th and 5th will be clear to try again . By 9pm Scorpuis and Sagittaruis are well placed and with some Don Mclean/James Taylor/harry chapin playing in the backgound { } made up some time exploring this rich region , the milky way really stood out . With the moon rising it was time to call it quits but wow what a night , worthy compenstation for a lenghty hitaus , hope everyone had a chance to get out to

[iceman (Mike)]

Wow stuart, great report and great shots. The 2nd one is my favourite! You really should take a few either side and do a mosaic next time.. stunning shots.

[h0ughy (David)]

Great stuff there! where is the photo of you in the longjohns ???

[atalas]

Great shots beren

Louie

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Nice one Stuart. I really like the crux shot. Glad you guys in the west are getting some viewing time.

[ving (David)]

nice one stuart
very pretty shots!

[dhumpie]

That's some amazing wide field shots. Alwyas love wide field shots! I should try some piggybacking sometime myself

Darren

[beren]

Thanks......had a second helping again with great conditons last night , forgot to recharge the batteries so had to take it easy with the heaters but still they worked a treat to combat the dew. Ill never laugh at wearing long johns again , should say Thermals , very effective despite the embarrasment .Did some visual stuff exploring the regions described in the AS&t june edition and some pics through the 120mm refractor riding shotgun on the SCT{ think im having issues with camera mirror slap through the SCT , explore that next time , the sky was to good to worry about that stuff}


Some usual and fav objects ....Swan/triffid/lagoon/eta.....the mighty open cluster NGC3532 and M7

[iceman (Mike)]

More fantastic shots Stuart! You're getting better all the time!

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Nice shootin' Tex. Glad to see you're getting more time out Stuart.

[Dave47tuc (David)]

Great shots Stuart

Enjoyed your report.

[Mick (Michael)]

Nice work Stuart

[beren]

Cheers .....got a hat trick great conditons tonight as well but just cant get the energy to take advantage of it two 1am stints in a row drains the batteries

[h0ughy (David)]

GREAT IMAGING SKILLS THERE MATE.

[dhumpie]

Very, very nice. Colors look very natural as well. How long were the exposures?

Darren

[beren]

Darren just one exposure/ 3mins@800iso with the D70 , my aim was just to get a pictorial of all the objects observed during the evening without getting bogged down with focus etc, i was hoping to get some pics through the SCT but settings at 2500mm are lot less unforgiving then the 600mm of the refractor ...next time

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

And what's wrong with thermals!!!! I've been wearing them for a few weeks already.

Stuart, Thanks for posting the Milky Way shots. My boys will love them! (I do too).

Great shots.

[beren]

thermals are hip......Ken id prefer your dark skies to view the Sag/Scorp star clouds visually then over any recordered image

[dhumpie]

Keep up to good work. Althought I like the look of those deep images with all the nebular swirls and colors, I like the realism of your images. Keep them coming

Darren

[Little Dragon]

Thank's Beren, like my dad said we will love th e pictures of the Milkey Way
We had a good look at the Milkey Way last night. The big black bit (coal sack) was so easy to see, it realy stuck out.