Steve Ward

Nice to see I wasn't the only one out grabbing some early on ... 🌞

It's fine now the clamps have been tweaked up , just the joys of seasonal movement of timber , something as a lifelong woodworker I've accepted ... I wouldn't normally store it in such a hot enviroment but it's very covenient at present and so quick to get on target that it'll stay put ...

Remarkable turn of conditions today , first four sets shot through the haze yielded very few worth looking at but a clear patch of blue was approaching followed by thicker cloud. Went and made a fresh coffee and grabbed a further two sets of 120 in the best seeing I've seen for years , thought the software had frozen in the camera as it just sat there with barely a shimmer , I actually only chucked away 50 frames from that 240 and they were all considerably better than the harvest from the first 480 ... ! And within five minutes things had returned to the usual milky wobbly mess that I'm accustomed to .

Just singles.

Awful wobbles first thing (06:00) so rather than have to stack rubbish yet again I waited an hour and had another look. Surprisingly , considering the rapidly rising temperature , things had settled down considerably and the next few sets shot gave me loads of decent frames ...

Google's a wonderful tool ... 😉 http://www.wolfi-ransburg.de/astronomie.html

Just a quick note/warning for Berlebach users . My Berlebach Planet is currently 'stored' fully rigged with the HEQ5Pro and Tal 100rs etc. in the summerhouse , ready to plonk in position for my Solar work , and obviously it's out in the full Sun for an hour or so at every opportunity. This morning I was seeing a small but steady 'drift' in a strange direction that I'd not seen before , tripod positioned in the same place as normal and pretty well aligned for my needs. A quick check revealed that the legs have dried out a little in the warmth and one was imperceptibly creeping down and causing the drift . A quick retightening of the legs cured it no problem , just an eight of a turn or so , but it could have been a pain if I hadn't spotted it ( I always get a little drift as I haven't actually polar-aligned it) So if you have one make sure you give the legs a tweak before loading it up too much this time of year ... 👍

Here you go Peter ..... https://www.astrobin.com/search/?q=+CF-APO+155+mm+f%2F8+

Another glorious morning here in Suffolk , seeing a tad better today but a milky sky all over , if it's not one thing ........ Canon EOS 1000D + Tal 100rs + 1.8x Barlow + Baader ND3.8 + Oiii , PIPP , AS!3 , Reg5 , Gimp. 122 frames stacked from 600 shot.

Good thinking Batman , never thought of that , but turning it off during capture kinda defeats the object of using it as an aiming device. Will have to look into the SkyTrack software option but I'm not sure that it's an easy option.

I'm going to get a holder for mine to use it as an aiming device when I start to try and get some decent images of the ISS . Did a quick test the other week to see if it would work to try and keep the station on-chip whilst manually moving the 'scope about with all clutches released , much easier than trying to aim through a finderscope and get your head round up/down/left/right with different tubes.

And it gets busier by the day ....

Had to catch it early before the clouds rolled in , left the colour alone rather than showing another dull grey image ... Also caught my first 'interloper' in about eight years and quarter of a million frames ... ✈️

Shot at the first opportunity this morning but only just stacked and tweaked ... Getting busy up there again , albeit in small bits and bobs ...

Probably the worst seeing I've had this year , nigh on impossible to judge focus even ... 🙈 Plugged away regardless though and managed to catch a few to stack eventually ...

Just watched that Cuiv chap for the first time , knows his stuff alright ... but not sure he actually paused for breath in the whole 53 minutes ... 🤣

Nice new bits appeared to counter the disappointment of the other region fading to nothing .

And I nearly forgot Doug German's excellent tutorials on processing .... https://www.youtube.com/user/namregd/videos

Rob Dalby and the sorely missed Ralph Bell R.I.P. on the Astronomy and Nature TV channel are a great source of gen , especially for beginners . https://www.youtube.com/c/AstronomyAndNatureTV/videos

+1 for Dr Becky obviously ... 🥰 And although not entirely astro , SciManDan deserves a mention in dispatches for his relentless destruction of all things Fl*t Ea**h ... 👍

Went to sleep with a blank disc , awoke to a new growing region ...

Plenty here to get your teeth into Stuart ... http://www.mistisoftware.com/astronomy/index_fits.htm

Just have to wait and see , I suspect the forecast will be just as accurate as the weather forecast , great at telling you what yesterday was like ...

Everything fighting me today , from dreadful seeing and whispy cloud everywhere to AS3 having hissy fits at the rubbish I kept feeding it .... 🤣

Usual stuff , bit wobbly out there but hey ... 🌞