UDSC 13 - 15th April

[ApophisAstros]

The Moon and Venus just now at Cairds.
Roger

[MarkS]

Tonight's forecast is clear but the sky quality today has been poor.  I suspect it will be murky tonight.

Mark

Well I was wrong! 

It was a stunning sky tonight.  At 2:30am I had an SQM reading of 21.20 which I've only ever recorded once before, here at home. 
A typical night here reaches 20.90-21.00.

To put it in context: 
The best I've ever recorded at a DSC was 21.31 at Rother Valley. 
I once recorded 21.38 at Kelling Heath but 21.20 is more typical. 
At Astrofarm last year I recorded 21.65

Mark

[Edit: after going to bed my SQM (connected to a laptop) peaked at 21.24 around 3am. A new record!]

[The Thing]

It was a second really good night here in Normandy as well, a bit like buses, none for ages then three come along at once.

[Carole]

Well it was another glorious night last night.  Dave brought a spare guide scope and camera for Roger.

I have been having problems with my mount GOTOs which were missing the alignment stars and targets.  This is the second night this has happened.  Much swearing and cursing.
Rechecked PA. but little improvement.  So ended up imaging items that were not on the list but just because l managed to find them which also meant l had a smaller camera than ideal for those targets.   
Also laptop playing up and ended up changing laptops as well.

Have reset the mount to factory settings for tonight.

We are so being joined for the evening by a Tom Collicot from SGL who lives in the vicinity but wants astro social life. 

Stinking hot here but l am sure it is everywhere.

Carole

[MarkS]

Last night, the SQM readings at home reached 21.25 again!  It stayed at 21.25 for a prolonged period (15 readings at 5 minute intervals).  In fact it blipped up to 21.26 twice but I'm not counting that.

I guess you had another good sky at uDSC also!

Here's the plot for the whole night:



In my experience, the readings are always higher after midnight.  I guess that's when folk go to bed and switch off external lights.  Towards the horizon it was a bit murky but the sky at zenith was excellent.

Unfortunately the previous night the computer crashed so I don't have data for the whole night.

Mark

[Carole]

Well it was another gloriously clear night last night and l am pleased to say my mount was much improved. 

I went to check on M81 after a couple of hours and found the last batch of subs had all trailed.  I am wondering if it tried to do meridian flip and either couldn't do it unaided by me. OR it did an autoflip and guiding was uncalibrated afterwards. So l changed target.  Had about 1 - 2 hours sleep and went back to the mount at dawn 5am to do my flats and Roger was already there doing his. 

Carole

[ApophisAstros]

Tonight's forecast is clear but the sky quality today has been poor.  I suspect it will be murky tonight.

Mark

Well I was wrong! 

It was a stunning sky tonight.  At 2:30am I had an SQM reading of 21.20 which I've only ever recorded once before, here at home. 
A typical night here reaches 20.90-21.00.

To put it in context: 
The best I've ever recorded at a DSC was 21.31 at Rother Valley. 
I once recorded 21.38 at Kelling Heath but 21.20 is more typical. 
At Astrofarm last year I recorded 21.65

Mark

[Edit: after going to bed my SQM (connected to a laptop) peaked at 21.24 around 3am. A new record!]

I did a SQM at Cairds and got 21.48 on one reading(East) but after 3 other directions averaged to 21.28!
Roger

[Carole]

Not long been home, slept in until 11.22am after being up all night, which meant I was packing up in the heat of the day which was pretty exhausting.

We have had 4 glorious nights at Cairds, 3 of which were clear all night.  Hope we have some nice imaging results.

Carole

[MarkS]

Not long been home, slept in until 11.22am after being up all night, which meant I was packing up in the heat of the day which was pretty exhausting.

We have had 4 glorious nights at Cairds, 3 of which were clear all night.  Hope we have some nice imaging results.

What?  You're not staying for tonight?  It should be clear all night (though the moon is becoming an issue).

Mark

[Carole]

I couldn't stop another night Mark as it is my birthday tomorrow and we have booked to go out somewhere. I know it is in the evening, but I knew I would be too exhausted if I left it for tomorrow.

Most of my kit is still in the van,  so no imaging tonight.  Annoyingly a neighbour has pinched my space outside the house where the van is normally parked and currently there are no spaces big enough for the van in our street, so have had to park in the next road.  Rather a long way to keep humping stuff in from the van in the heat.  I already did some, but there is a limit.  Also am wondering whether this neighbour has gone on holiday as there are no lights in the house !!!!! 

Still feeling absolutely shattered, but a bit better now the temperature has gone down with the Sun.

Carole

[MarkS]

I did a SQM at Cairds and got 21.48 on one reading(East) but after 3 other directions averaged to 21.28!
Roger

In theory, both Rother Valley and Cairds should be darker than my place.  Given that I achieved 21.25 then 21.28 is believable and 21.48 is not out of the question.

In any case it was a definitely a stonking great night imaging across Kent and East Sussex!  Looking forward to the results, from you guys and myself.

Mark

[Mac]

I have been having problems with my mount GOTOs which were missing the alignment stars and targets.

Have you checked the time on the mount, BST?
Easy one to forget.

Mac.

[Carole]

Yes all checked Mac.  No idea what was going on as everything checked and double checked.  I re-checked the PA as well. 

In the end I put it back to factory settings and re-input everything again, and whilst it missed the first alignment star, once I had synced that, it found the targets (on the last night), better late than never. 

Carole

[Carole]

Just getting to the last image for processing at Cairds:

M16 1 hour 55 mins
M81 3 hours 22.5 mins
Sadr region 2h 50 mins
Spinning top galaxy 50 minutes
Pelican Nebula 4h 15 mins
Total of 14 hours imaging time over the 4 nights.

Carole

[Carole]

My new obsy tent, with modded roof which worked well.



I could even sit inside which I wasn't expecting, and this made imaging much more cosy.