DaveS

Currently -2.8⁰ here. I had a quick look outside, and while it looked clear I could see a lot of high cloud.

I've got a small blowtorch and a proper one in the garage, I think I'll fetch it in tomorrow. Meanwhile the wood is burning, just about and the room is slowly warming up, just gone above 18⁰.

Sitting here trying to get warm, blummin' wood doesn't want to burn. Utter rubbish. It's only warmer than outside in relative terms.

Almost total high cloud here. I had a look and the moon is surrounded by haze.

No streetlights in the villages where I live, and long may it continue. I think the nearest are 4-5 miles away, though the nearest town do their best (Worst) to make up for it.

Solid cloud here in the Bride Valley Dorset. CO is suggesting odd clear slots, MO says no chance.

OK, here we go, in chronological order. HCG 44, the Leo Quartet M64, The "Black Eye Galaxy" The "Bubble Nebula in SHO M92, the only Globular that I maged this year Finally HCG 92, Stephan's Quintet All captured with the ODK12, the Bubble in SHO with the G3 16200, all the others in LRGB with the SX Trius 694.

The clear slot has unexpectedly increased to all night, at least according to the Met Office, so added 6 hours Luminance on HCG 35, and 2 hours on Copeland's Septet to take it up to dawn. I may lose some data to passing cloud, hopefully not too much.

I was discussing this with Rupert at Astrograph, and he said that Chile charges you VAT even on kit you already own when you import it. Meanwhile, I have an unexpected clear slot so getting more Luminance data on HCG 10, just a sneaky 3 hours.

Stargazine flatlined 18 months ago, it's a dead horse (Or parrot) don't flog it.

I've stopped planning ahead, even from morning to evening, the weather changes so quickly, but almost never for the better. This is the wrong part of the world for astronomy.

The rejected Dynetics Alpaca looks like a much better design for landing on an unknown and possibly irregular surface.

Did I see the doomful word "imaging"? Beware of the slippery slope into the financial black hole of bankruptcy. In all seriousness imaging begins with the mount, if you haven't got that sorted then nothing else will work, something at the HEQ5 (Other capable mounts are available) level is about the minimum for imaging without having to spend hours (And ££££) fettling.

Clouds apparently.

I was wrong, only 3 hours Luminance and 3 hours RGB. I thought the data was thin when I couldn't apply Unsharp Mask without sending the noise crazy.

AKA HCG 61, reworked with Blur XT ver 2 and AI4. Captured with the SX 694 on the ODK 12. 6 hours L and 2 hours each RGB on the 21st and 24th May this year at the end of Galaxy Season. Version 1 Version 2 I think there's a bit more detail coming through in Version 2 but it needs to be looked at full size on a good monitor to see.

From the MO forecast I thought I had the chance of 6 hours plus of clear sky last night so set up a sequence for a couple of targets, HCG 10 for 3 hours RGB and 3 hours Lum, then HCG 35 for 3 hours Lum just on the off chance. Got as far as 1 hour Red and the first 10 min Green then the cloud rolled in and the rain alarm was showing showers so called it a night.

I've had to call a halt to this as by the time I can collect more data it will be getting too far west, so... 3 hours Luminance (Bin 1) and 1 hour each RGB (Bin 2) through Baader Bessel filters with a new ASI 533 on the ODK 12 as an experiment. A bit of a disaster as they have huge halos. Nothing like enough data and it shows. Stacking, Gradient Reduction and basic RGB combination in AstroArt 8. Darks, Flats and Flat Darks but no Bias as it stuffed up the calibration. Then SPCC (On the RGB), Blur Xterminator, Masked Stretch and Noise Xterminator in PI, then back to AA8 for a gentle Histogram Stretch and LRGB combination. A bit of selective Magenta reduction to tame the halos a bit. Saved as a PNG. For reference, that blazing searchlight bottom centre is mag 6.3 reduced to 6.58 by air mass according to Stellarium. North is up.

I managed to get 3 hours RGB with Baader Bessel photometric filters. Baader still has a problem with halos. Still need Flats and Flat Darks for the colour channels. SPCC colour in PI.

My two DDMs are utterly silent when tracking or slewing, but since ASA stopped making them you can only find them second hand. It might be easier to find hens' teeth.

For one of my 'scopes I have a Telegizmos 365 cover (Not a cheap knock off) with a 12V waterproof pet bed that's designed for 24/7 operation, set on low to keep dew / condensation at bay.

Possibly my favourite so far, HCG 92 AKA Stephan's Quintet captured with the ODK 12 and SX Trius 694 on the DDM 85.

I'm seriously wondering if UK astronomy has any future with the increasing light pollution, which only illuminates the ever present cloud. I can't see any more useable clear nights through December, then it just gets worse.

Of the LRGB sequence I started, the 3 hours of Luminance were OK, but nowhere near enough, the 6 Red subs were OK, but only 5 of the Green were anything like OK. The sky had clouded over by that time so the last Green sub was a write off and I shut down and went to bed before the Blue run got going. I have no idea when I might be able to collect any more data so here is the result of 3 hour Lum on HCG 10, ASI 533MM, 600 sec subs, Gain 100, Offset 60. WBPP, BlurX, Masked Stretch, NoiseX in PI, then a gentle Histogram Stretch in AstroArt 8

I'm imaging tonight even though it's blowing a hoolie, just about safe to open the roof. This is a time when I wish I'd pushed the boat out for a dome despite the cost, which was frightening.