Craney

On certain globulars getting that nice distribution of amber/orange stars populating the outer regions of the brilliant blue-white core is a mark of a good picture. You have certainly got that. Good work. Re: astro-darkness..... don't give up just yet! There are loads of narrow-band targets in the Cygnus region that yield good (ish) results in the Summer months. You may have to string four or five sessions together to get the acquisition time, but hey-ho!..... those "Summmmmer-niiiighttts....tell me more, tell me more..."

My three CCD's work fine and keep me happy. The problem is justification. Can I justify the expense of a new colour and mono CMOS cameras when at the moment I'm averaging about 2 clear nights a month and that old chestnut...the cost of living??? Will migrate eventually, probably when there is a new 'MOS on the block.

Use this.... https://www.sat24.com/en-gb/country/gb and this https://www.netweather.tv/live-weather/radar if you fear for a rig left out in the rain .....

Phew....Thank goodness somebody came in with a number greater than mine.... 13 .... unlucky for me if my partner sees this..... ( a couple of them only come out on a dark night !! )... She is aware of the brand "Takahashi", could probably work out what a box labelled "Tele-Vue" or "Sky-Watcher" contains..... I think "Vixen" might be the way forward, although thinking about it........

There is a thing called STEVE ( (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement) which produces an arc like phenomena in the sky. Looks similar, although I don't think STEVE is technically classed as an Aurora. This is a picture of STEVE posted on a BBC weather website from a different event.

Just in case you have a good Southern horizon (🤣😁)..... here is a handy visual guide. It's in the constellation Pictor. and a zoom-in video.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z8E4spViHE

I think you may have got a cloud to cloud lightning discharge. Some big storm clouds racing across the North East tonight. Another application of the cam.

Bravo !!..... I normally don't Panda to cheap gags.... but it's worth a punto. Good luck with clear skies.

OOps!! ...this is a visual report thread. Sorry.

Loving the fact the swan has got their eye on some potential lunch.... as opposed to the beautiful atmospheric spectacle behind. Great photos.

Excellent stuff. Thanks a lot.

.... as is the mineral Moon.

I tried a combination of Black 2.0 (undercoat) and Black 3.0 (top coat) on the inside of a metallic dewshield. It wasn't bad, but it did seem to dry with a slight matt grey sheen, which probably looked worse in bright sunlight than it would at night. Here are some photos, start end I'm not fully convinced. sean.

It may re-appear in about 3,870 years..,,

I tried the Black 3.0 with a Black 2.0 undercoat on an 8" dew shield. It seemed to dry with a slight grey'ish matt sheen. Not terrible, but not "black cat in a coal 'ole" black.

.... and it was mostly cloudy as well .... ho hum. Peak was at 6pm 'ish.... I was in position about 8 ish.... at Thruscross Reservoir, North Yorkshire. The cloud, lights and reclusive aurora did give the sky a Turneresque appeal.... If you were the guy who we spoke to, who had brought his f4 lens instead of the f1.8. That's you on the Dam ( white light, 3rd piccie, bottom right) getting creative. Sean.

Great images. They have a 3D look to them.... almost as if the planet is a shiny spherical pebble lodged in my laptop screen.

@Ouroboros This is the website version. (www.sat24.com) I like to use time stamped photo data in terms of clouds and then use my own judgement as to when or if they are going to hit. Any apps or websites that have the capacity to 'predict' conditions ahead seem to be over / under optimistic in equal measure, which does not help matters. The Met office seems to predict over quite large grid squares, which for Harrogate ( not quite York low level flood plain, not quite high Pennine hills ) leads to variable results.

Evening all. Thought I would share this. I know we all like are own particular on-line tools to detect and predict when the lovely fluffy stuff will arrive. Seems like the Sat24 site has had a colour software upgrade and the detail looks much better, especially at night when the imaging reverts to IR. The previous IR format looked like it was taken from a geostationary. The UK was foreshortened and quite small on the Europe wide image. This one is certainly easier to predict from and seems to be processed to match the Visible image. It wont make the clouds disappear but I hope it might help you plan ahead a bit better. Cheers, Sean.

Always have a quick look at the World H-Alpha network to see what is happening on the Sun. Today's was quite spectacular !! Website plays a gif. https://gong2.nso.edu/products/scaleView/view.php?configFile=configs/hAlpha.cfg&productIndex=5

If you are a bit bored on this Sunday night and are feeling a little frustrated with the blanket cloud forecast.... well use some technology and look at this web cam. https://www.shetlandwebcams.com/eshaness-lighthouse/ It's quite sensitive and in real-time and facing North.. plus you can scan backwards and search out possible events. I've seen two fairly bright meteors already. The Lighthouse is a bit annoying though 😂

Remember.... all weather realities are covered by the phrase .... " scattered showers and sunny intervals"....

Look for neighbouring properties that may overlook your observing space. 2 reasons... firstly it will restrict your horizons... and secondly the random turning on and off of lights disrupts vision and photo sequences. ( you will obviously be be a source of fascination for everyday folk as well...) Look for trees that may become an issue. I had three in a neighbours garden.... 2 leylandii which were chopped ( Yay!!!) but the remaining beech has now shot up by 20 ft (boooo!!!!)

A few times I have been setting up in my back garden when the app signals high auroral activity. The dilemma then is either to hop in the van and go somewhere dark or stick with plan A and take advantage of a clear night at home. I find that looking at sites like www.spaceweather.com gives a heads-up of any CME which is Earthbound a few days in advance and so you can tentatively plan some kind of aurora based outing that has an above average chance of success. I'm sure I have seen some rotating space plasma diagram thingy on a website somewhere that shows possible impacts spiraling out from the Sun with a projected future time axis as well. Cannot seem to find a link.

I find this very useful... https://www.netweather.tv/live-weather/radar Slight time delay... 5-10 minutes..... but you can step it through a sequence and see if showers are developing or drifting your way. Some of the light blue traces are heavy cloud and not actual rain.