Nigella Bryant

Just in from a two hour session on Jupiter. Some nice detail coming through tonight. Oval disturbance in the NEB with a few festoons encroaching into the equatorial zone. Equatorial band evident. SEB broken by the GRS preceeding the spot with several wakes proceeding the GRS and several disturbances behind it in the SEB. STb darker just preceeding the GRS and continuing below and behind. Several small ovals evident in the southern polar region. I'm hoping the imaging session will confirm once processed. Image from Skysafari

I said, "don't tempt me" I'd end up buying a 20inch PW 😆

The NUTS are going this weekend 😆

Will do, have to raise my pillar to accommodate the Cq350. Hopefully over this weekend. My first impressions are good. Responsive under ecmod via an ecmod cable, Cart de Ciel and GSS. Communication straight away through mini pc. Did a home sync and custom Park under GSS. That's all I can report at the mo. Nigella

Love to go to this but I've already spent this years allocation on a new mount, lol. Don't tempt me, lol 😆 seriously, don't.

Thanks Jim, I do love fettling with equipment, etc almost as much as actually doing astronomy. I'm going to use another drain riser fitted on top the existing pillar, fill with concrete and new rod's for the top plate using rod connectors. I'll have to cut the existing rods down leaving about 50mm to connect the extension bars to then fill with concrete. Nigella

It's called OCD Jeremy, lol. When I've got something that has to be done, chewing at the bit now having to wait til the weekend to raise the pillar, lol.

Tried the new mount, worked first time, connected via Green Swamp Server. Hit a problem with the hight of the pillar. I'm going to have to raise it up about 25cm so the telescopes can image the sun in the winter month's. On a positive, it'll get rid of the long rod's at present shown in the pics below the adapter plate. Guess I'll be waiting another week to get this done. Pleased with the mounts responsiveness under GSS and Cart de Ciel. It's a lot bigger than the dead Neq6. Brushed the cobwebs off around the solar shed too, 😆

Complete cloud cover here, must the new mount I bought 😭

Thanks Jeremy, excited to get it up and running tomorrow.

Revamped my old saddle plate for the new Cq350 and made a three gang double socket board for the solar obsy, long overdue socket board. All ready to go in the obsy tomorrow. Got to play with my drill press again, lol.

Welcome back, not only hardware, software has advanced too. Exciting times.

So, who's getting the commission, lol 😆

After my 20yr old Neq6 died I was after a decent weight bearing mount. Perhaps I over weighted the Neq6 with triple scopes, lol. All three scopes come to around 18/20kg not including auxiliary equipment so a beefier mount was needed, hence the new Cq350 arriving today. It certainly is beefier, lol. This is for my solar scopes so I've been out of action for a couple of weeks and the Neq6 had intermittent issues leading up to it's demise.

Yeah, I'll post my take on it after I've had a few sessions under real life conditions.

Just pushed the button on a CQ350 mount head, gulp. My 20year old Neq6 died last week. It was my solar scope mount so a big miss. It was well used so can't grumble. I'm hoping this new mount will be a great work horse until I poke up the daisies, lol.

It's called not freezing your b*** off, lol. I've heated gloves and heated back pad under my coat, lol. Nice and cozy, lol. I don't care what I look like. Although I could be mistaken as someone about to take something not belonging to them in my black balaclava, lol.

Trying to observe and image Jupiter again tonight between the fast moving clouds, quite frustrating. Lovely detail between the clouds of the GRS, festoons on the lower to EQzone of the NEB and the continuing disturbances following the GRS in the SEB. Of course me all wrapped up warm and cozy, lol 😆

I have the A3 version

Had a four hour stint on Jupiter last night.

Yes, you're right John, the GRS is disturbing the SEB. My image taken in December highlights this.

Just in after a four hour stint on Jupiter. Fairly well defined features this evening. 8pm showed the NEB with two large blue festoons going into the Eqzone. At the northern region of the NEB was what looked like three white ovals. SEB at this time looked fairly bland but with several knots on the southern part. By around 9.30pm there appeared a festoon to the South East of the SEB. Observed Io disappear behind Jupiter later and Europa and Ganymede transiting the Southern Tropical zone area. A great evening.

Someone wrote on cloudy nights "it is a rasa 6 on a little robotic mount,, a little much for a beginner, it was leaked a while back"

Lovely delivery from FLO of the ZwoAsi 462mm. Especially for lunar and possibly RGB planetary imaging. I'm hoping it might contain snow though, don't get it here, non since 2018. Sorry peps I love snow ❄️