Imaging tonight?

[MarkS]

It just took me 30 minutes to find the 3 bricks laid in the ground for the tripod - they were completely overgrown in the 3 months since I last imaged.

Just got the BBQ out and there was a rock hard burger inside it from last time (which must have been a couple of months ago) - I don't fancy it so I'll leave it out for the local animals.

Just drunk half of two half pints of Pimms & lemonade (Only drank half because Dee drank the other half  ).

The aeroplanes are up there doing their usual acrobatic stuff (just like at Rother Valley)

The occasional high level cloud is doing its irridescent stuff.

I'd forgotten how much I enjoy lazy sunny summer afternoons ...

Mark

P.S. I cycled past Tuesnoad this morning - a single caravan camped there and it hadn't used our "usual" entrance which is full of weeks and grass.  Grass was fairly long (no sheep) and a HUGE bonfire (wooden pallets etc.) waiting to be lit ...

[Rocket Pooch]

Well this is the 1st time I have been Mackerel fishing this year 17 of them in two hours and 6 are going on the BBQ this afternoon.7

Didn't cycle today, but watching Le Tour.


Cycling home from work 2-3 times this weeks though.

[Fay]

i will venture outside tonight. don't want to stay up too late as have to get up early tomorrow

[JohnP]

Big 50 today   Really nice day with the family - 15mile trek this morning to try out my new bike then a lovely Sunday Pub dinner out in the countryside with a couple of pints of real ale - Bliss.. Back in time to watch King Bradley then Champagne & chocolate cake in the garden.... Am thinking of imaging to finish of a great day but feeling a bit pooped.....

[MarkS]

Cycling home from work 2-3 times this weeks though.

That sounds like a great idea but I'm not sure I understand the logistics.  How do you get the bike to work in the first place?

[MarkS]

Big 50 today  

Congratulations!!

Glad the sun smiled on your day! 

[MarkS]

i will venture outside tonight. don't want to stay up too late as have to get up early tomorrow

Hmmm ... 
At this time of year it doesn't even get dark until its too late.

[Fay]

John i did not know you were that old! Thought you were around 42!!!!!!!!!!

[JohnP]

Thks Mark - Thks Fay.... Ha... Made me fall off my chair laughing 42 - IF ONLY....!!!!!!!

[julian]

happy birthday
John


good luck on imaging to night I'm going to bed.

[JohnP]

Thank you Julian - John

[MarkS]

In the end I didn't do any imaging.  I got a cold and just felt worse and worse during the day.  So I packed it all away and went to bed instead.

How annoying!!!

[Rick]

If conditions down your way were anything like they were here then your kit would have been doing double-duty as a dew condenser...

[Carole]

I went out but only managed to get 20mins of subs before my chosen target disappeared behind the dome.  Most of the other target options were also in a similar position, so if it's clear tonight I think I'll set up outside as I can't see me getting much at this moment in time.  One of the drawbacks of a POD.  I have however got myself a camping observatory, so I will set up in that and if the weather stays I could possibly leave it up for a couple of nights. 

Most of the year this is not a problem, but DSO in Cygnus around July ARE. 

I tried also for the Heart and Soul but I think I didn't manage to centre the object so that's probably a waste of time too, but won't know until I process the subs. 

Just need to try to set the orientation up as close as possible.

Carole

[The Thing]

I was out imaging in the garden last night. The sky was really clear, I could see more stars in the PHD guide window than normal, nearly as good as Rother. Kept getting USB dropouts so no usable subs.

[Fay]

it was a nice evening lkast night. I got 11x600 of M16. I could not stay out longer as I had to go out early today. bit worn out but have setup again tonight with 50mm lens. it was darkish until 10.15 last night.

[Carole]

Kept getting USB dropouts

That's funny, as I got a couple of those last night as well.  Tried to move the mount to next object from desktop upsatirs and it just wouldn't move the mount.  Went out to Obsy and wouldn't work there either, had to disconnect CdC and EQmod and start it up again.  Then my DSLR disconnected itself.  So much for trying to do stuff remotely, I still had to go out and sort it out.

Carole

[The Thing]

I cured DSLR and QHY5 disconnects by using a powered hub. The mount uses the EQDIR with Prolific chipset which shows up as COM5 on my laptop. I have just installed a different Prolific driver (WDM version) ready for more trials...

---------It worked!-------

My Lakeside Focuser controller is also having serial connection issues (FTDI this time), works fine in lappy USB but not in the hub!!! Annoying. Want it all sorted for Friday.

[MarkS]

I've had a cold the last few days so I've missed a couple of good nights.  I'm still not really up to it so I'm not using a scope tonight - just the Canon with 35mm lens on EQ6 to take a few subs of the Milky Way.  It's a really good sky tonight with the Milky Way just about discernible to the naked eye right down to the horizon, next to the Teapot - SQM reading 21.05 at zenith.

The previous SQM reading I took was 29 March.  So this is my first imaging in almost 4 months!!

A raw 3 min ISO 800 exposure looking almost directly south.  Canon 400D 35mm F/4.


Mark

[Rocket Pooch]

Yipeee 1st summer image.

[Fay]

hope you feel a bit better Mark. it is not long since your last cold. i would like to do the Milky Way, with Canon, nice Mark

[mickw]

Cool

[The Thing]

Dead cool

[julian]

Nice one Mark.
Looks like a good set up for the perseids.

[MarkS]

Tonight just didn't compare with last night.

At zenith the SQM reading was slightly worse at 20.8 (instead of 21.05) but the transparency was nowhere near as good - visually it lacked impact.  Down near the horizon I couldn't even discern the Teapot or the main stars of Scorpio, let alone the Milky Way.

I tried some imaging the same field of view with the CLS filter but it really was a waste of time.

It just goes to show that the SQM reading does not tell the whole story.   It's quite possible for a sky to be quite dark but have abominable transparency.