Orpington Astronomical Society

Astronomy => Astrophotography => Topic started by: Fay on Apr 22, 2011, 23:20:05

Title: Not a Good week
Post by: Fay on Apr 22, 2011, 23:20:05
Well I have been outside 4 nights this week & got nothing. Nothing was worth keeping.
Never happened before. Guiding has never been so bad & guide stars must have gone out of fashion.

I am indoors now, as I looked at the scopes etc & everything was covered in something like a smattering of mud!!!!!!!!! Surely not an aircraft ejecting what it wants over us? I have had to wipe everything down & clean the lens's.

Skies do not look good, wondering about this smog they are on about the last few days. :(

Title: Re: Not a Good week
Post by: Mac on Apr 22, 2011, 23:30:32
Well the drive home this morning was intresting regarding the smog.
Driving out of london on the A3 you could clearly see the brown hue of the smog
sitting in the air, over and above the low lying ground mist.

it wasnt untill you passed Guilford that the smog actually disappeared,
and all you was left with was the clear ground mist.

Pretty interesting.

Mac.
Title: Re: Not a Good week
Post by: MarkS on Apr 22, 2011, 23:51:34

Similar experience to Mac - I had to drive into London today to help my son move.  As soon as I hit the Swanley bypass the London smog was very obvious.

At present I can only see mag 5.2 - nothing fainter yet.   Guiding is slightly better than last night (0.2 RMS in PHD instead of 0.25) but I normally get 0.15

Mark
Title: Re: Not a Good week
Post by: RobertM on Apr 23, 2011, 00:07:31
It sure don't look great but guiding is ok, my problem is all the reflected light off this grunge that's in the atmosphere :(
Title: Re: Not a Good week
Post by: mickw on Apr 23, 2011, 00:53:44
Visibility so bad here, the laptop couldn't even see the camera  :!  Guiding worked well though.

Ended up sitting in the garden with the 2 Bs  Bins and Beer  8)
Title: Re: Not a Good week
Post by: Carole on Apr 23, 2011, 07:42:07
Glad I never went out last night in that case, although I was planning to, but dropped off to sleep because of the late session the night before.

Roll on DSC then, away from the London pollution. 

Carole
Title: Re: Not a Good week
Post by: Fay on Apr 23, 2011, 08:24:58
Well it seems it was smog on my equipment. There seems to be so much soot etc in the air, it landed, & when it became more dewy, the particles ran, that is why it looked splattered! 

The other night I did 12x600 and I could do nothing with it & so each night has gone on. I won't go outside again until it has rained & cleared the air.

What a bummer, all these clear nights &  bad skies.............................