DeepSky Camp August 2008

[Carole]

Fantastic image of Jupiter Tony, makes mine look a bit pathetic.  You have also explained what the blob on the upper ring is on mine which is too small to see, so I must have got the moon in transit as well.  I'll look it up on Starry night to see which one it is, and of course I remember now only being able to see 3 moons and had assumed one was behind, but in fact it was in front in transit.

What settings did you use?

Mark, the pictures of the sun dog and clouds are good, you have a very good camera there.  I think the one of the sun dog is upside down as I remember the Sun was below the sundog and it was a ring above it.  Most of the clouds are actually the remains of the plane trails (or whatever there correct name is).

Carole

[JohnP]

Cool - thks for that Mark. I like the idea of not having to use a laptop to focus - Like you say for widefield work you can be laptop free....

From the picture you posted in the sixth image into the right correct focus then?

Thks,  John

[Mike]

Excellent pictures guys. We were pretty lucky with the weather considering.

[MarkS]

John, yes, the 6th section the left is the one in focus

Carole, the sundog image is definitely not upside down - the arc really does curve away from the sun which is below it.  You can even match clouds between the sundog and contrail images to prove it.

[Fay]

Mark, I did not realise that you were downloading to the camera & not using the laptop.

And you are so patient, not wanting to keep looking to see how each image is coming along!!!!


I am amazed that you just left PHD & did not re do the guide star after it was beeping so much & the image is still in focus!!!

[Fay]

Chris,

looking forward to seeing the Witches Broom after you have processed, I am sure it will be great!

[Tony G]

Hi all,

Despite all the moaning about the weather and clouds, we have some fantastic images posted here, and seeing we only had a small window of oppotunity on Friday and Saturday, people did take the chance and like I've already said, produced great images.
This should be encouraging for people who are 50/50 in thinking of coming down from the light polluted skies of London, and seeing the dark skies we do have, if only for a few hours at a time, which make the winter DSC a definate, with the long dark clear (cold) nights which are occasionally warmed up with a communial meal of something spicy (or not,depending on taste), and a bottle or twenty of wine, cider and whiskey (you missed another chance, Mick )
It's a great weekend for imaging, and also visual observing, which usually happens when one thing or another goes badly wrong, and also a good place to get advice on different aspects of astrophotography like 'Why is my colour webcam only imaging in B/W'
Thanks for turning the saturation down John.

Keep up the great imaging everyone

Tony G

PS................ Lovely Veil Chris

[JohnP]

Tony - Agree with you totally even though I didn't take my kit this weekend. It was great just to chill out & walk around & talk to people & see all different scopes/ imaging setups etc. & of course do some visual stuff (mainly eyeball & bino's as I think most scopes were being used for imaging). Did you get a chance to check your satellite transit yet - I'm not sure it is Europa.

What's the deal with the 12-inch Dob - It's a shame it wasn't there? Would have been ideal for doing visual stuff in between clouds etc.

John

[Mike]

Tony, would the Dob fit inside one of those boxes you mentioned? If so, maybe we could pursuade Jeff Wright to let us keep two boxes down there?

[Tony G]

John,

It's great knowing that if some poor beginner of 5-6 years in astronomy happens to mention the wrong moon on an image, that there is someone (liken to a puma and a deer) waiting to pounce, and correct the lonely and sad astronomer, but saying that, you are correct it is Io and not Europa

Well Spotted

Tony G

PS Mike, I'll Check about those boxes.

[JohnP]

Tony - Lots of laughs...  The only reason I looked/ checked was because I was trying to see if I could help identify the marking you are talking about - I wouldn't have noticed otherwise...

I don't mind being likened to a Puma but not a 'dear.....' pls.... 

John

[Fay]

John, do you mean a deer? a lean horned animal or a dear, like Miss Marple!

[Daniel]

Hey guys, does anyone fancy doing something in the autumn, there's a place called sixpenny handley just outside of salisbury, my nan and grandad used to live there and it's actually even darker than tuesnoad, there's a camp site there which is frequented by a few astronomers who know about it, and it's only fiver a night to stay there, plus showers, toilets etc.

I've been looking into heading up there myself sometime soon, so will be able to report on what it's like.

It's a bit further away than tuesnoad, but the sight should be breathtaking, just wish i'd had the sense to look up when i was visitiing as a kid.

[Mike]

can you post the details of the place up here?

[Daniel]

here's the website for the campsite, I just checked though, it's actually £5.50 a night

http://www.churchfarmcandcpark.co.uk/