Plans for tonight??

[MartinB]

Looking good still although a bit breezy at the mo. Saturday tomorrow so most of you wont have to be up too early. What are your plans?

If the wind settles a bit it's ED120 imaging M81 for me (if I can get the kit working). If the wind is too strong, it will be out with ZS66 for the Leo triplet or Makarian chain stuff. Might finish off with a bit of a messier imaging grab. Also want some good old eyeballing with the NS8.

[GazOC]

The spring galaxies with my Dob and Saturn with my Mak/ Toucam....touch wood.

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

M42 with the Nikon, before it goes away forever. If it stays clear, M81 & M82 after M42 has disappeared and maybe the Leo Triplet if they clear the tree early enough.

Captain Chaos

[CELESCOPE]

wide field 52mm of Barnards loop , but it will be cloudy cus Martin says its clear ,Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[geppetto]

Setting up my mount in a different part of my yard where the greenhouse has

gone from so will need a look see at the pole star.

After that, a final play with M42 and maybe Saturn if the wind dies down.

Good luck folks 8)

[Vega]

My plans are for Sat night as weather better for me then

-Showing Saturn to a friend for the first time... now that really excites me.

-Show off Double Cluster, M31 and M45 too

-Like CC... Get my DSLR on M42 before she's gone for another year :tearyeyed:

If there was more time I would webcam Saturn again, but a human being has to sleep at some point :shock:

Matt

[Ant]

I'm planning to be out with Jamie (my four year old) and a friend of his from school.

Should be fun. Shame the moon isn't around, so it'll be Saturn and maybe a cluster or two!

Ant

[lunator]

I'm out tonight but I hope to get some viewing on Saturday.

I will be hunting down some neglected doubles.

[FLO]

Off to the NLO - weather looking good!

[Kai]

Imaging Saturn using the C8 and my new Moonlite focuser and then onto some imaging with the 66 fingers crossed.

[geppetto]

Forcast here is clear skies till 6 in the morning.

Trouble is it's wall to wall cloud and thick cloud at that

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

I've got the same forecast and the same clouds here Phil. Mine has a few holes in it so after feeding I'm going out again.

'Scope is currently as focused as I can manage and tracking M42 through the shed roof and clouds.

Captain Chaos

[tom.yates]

Well my plans are just to find as many things the night allows and just take in the views

[nitram100]

Im getting some lovely views of Saturn, even from North West London! Made out the cassini, shadow on the rings and about 4 moons

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Well that was fun.

One go at focusing before it was properly dark, several shots of a tree with M42 behind it, some of the horsehead behind clouds, 20 underexposed Beehives and one good frame of M81 and M82 together.

I really enjoyed it even though there's nothing to show for it really. But I did learn more about the kit.

The guiding works well with the ED80 using the Nikon and the Atik unless the clouds get in the way, and then it just makes things worse.

The IR controller works fine and snaps away even when the clouds get in the way.

All in all a good night for dry runs for tomorrow (or whenever)

I hope the rest of you had better luck.

Captain Chaos

[MartinB]

:) Last DSO image 5 weeks ago now.

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

That'll teach you to taunt the cloud gods MB

See what happens when you mock them.

All praise to the cloud gods. All praise to the cloud gods.

Captain Chaos

[geppetto]

The odd thing about yesterdays forcast for clear skies was that if you looked at the

last three or four satellite images prior to 7pm, it was never ever going to be clear (here at least) :?

Tonight should be interesting, predicted clear from 6 till 9pm yet there's the mother of a cloud bank

hovering over all the west of the UK and heading our way:clouds1:

We shall see...

[GazOC]

I don't want to rub it in but it was clear as bell here until around 02:30. I came in for a warm about 01:30 though and missed the last hour, I'm a bit miffed that I didn't stick it out and make the most of the night.

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Rub away Gaz, we don't mind at all. :)

Captain Chaos

[Vega]

:)

Now thats good use of fantastic emoticons right there

I had a clear one Friday night, brought a friend round who'd never seen the light before (looked through a scope). I started off with the double cluster and the plieadeaeaeae... oh hell M45. M42 was already lost in the trees at 10pm (there goes my next attempt at imaging it, I thought to myself). As he kept asking to, I pointed the scope at Sirius through a gap in the trees. The rainbow like colours impressed him (being a bit of a party-pooper I explained that the light effect was only the result of the Earth's atmosphere and not some kind of amazing whizzy colour changing star). Next was M35 which I'd never looked at myself. I was pleasantly surprised at this pretty open cluster. Finally as promised was Saturn. Obviously he was gobsmacked, "oh WOW" I heard under his breath and that was only at 40x mag! I shoved in the 6mm Radian... lets just say he liked what he was looking at. He asked me about galaxies, I tried to find Andromeda in the NW but failed even with bins. This object always seems to avoid me when I want to show someone with little time left. The following night I imaged M35 and come to realise I have to do this drift alignment lark to get some decent multiple dso images anywhere over 30sec exposure.

Matt