I can see stars (no bump to head required)

[ardbeg74]

Wow! After a painfully long 12 days of clouds i can see the sky tonight.

Not only that but can see a few mag 3 stars, which is good for where I am. Fingers crossed the clouds stay away for a bit.

Sorry.. just feels like ive been locked in a basement with no windows for the last week or so.  You can only collimate your scope / read articles / play with stellarium / check [ insert your fav weather site here ] / re-stack old images so many times before going completely insane. 

Its my own fault though... if i hadnt bought that BST...... could cover IS directly proportional to the expected WOW factor of the latest kit you bought. 

Why am i still here? Good question... gotta get the scope out to cool down....

Laters

Mark 

[ronin]

Don't worry, we will sent someone round to supply the bump to the head anyway.

[Astro Imp]

Yes makes a nice change but it is quite windy here and the seeing isn't great, Castor looked like a kalaidascope when splitting it earlier. Spent some time looking at Jupiter with it's four moons strung out like a row of beads.

[ardbeg74]

Don't worry, we will sent someone round to supply the bump to the head anyway.

Thanks ronin, couldn't get em to drop by the shops on the way over could you? Getting low on tea.

Yes makes a nice change but it is quite windy here and the seeing isn't great, Castor looked like a kalaidascope when splitting it earlier. Spent some time looking at Jupiter with it's four moons strung out like a row of beads.

Thats interesting, didnt realise castor was a double, had a google for it and 6", that should be fun! Managed 9" before but not tried anything below that yet. Jupiter was great with the BST, but yea seeing was average here, transparency was good though.

Got to star test my collimation on capella, gotta say it looked spot on, so time well spent stripping down and remounting the secondary. Big thanks to astronomyshed on youtube for the great videos.    Be surprised if he's not member here...

Split 56 Aur too, but at 36" very easy. Then some time on M42 before it too close to the neighbours chimney.

For jupiter the barlowed BST was way too much but tried that trick of taking the lens off the barlow and screwing it into the EP. That was a nice compromise.

Very happy with the BST,  can see me getting some more of those.

Also found a nifty way to get the camera centred with the ep and sort out the vignetting at the same time... shine a red light down the tube. Simple really, dunno why i didnt think of that before. 

So all in a good night and more data to play with.

All the best and merry christmas!

Mark

[Astro Imp]

Thats interesting, didnt realise castor was a double, had a google for it and 6", that should be fun! Managed 9" before but not tried anything below that yet. Jupiter was great with the BST, but yea seeing was average here, transparency was good though.

 I have the 150P and you have the longer focal length 150PL so you should be able to split Castor easily when the seeing cooperates. 

[ardbeg74]

Thanks Alan. Thats now top of the list for next nights targets.

Reviewed the footage from the other night, got a nice surprise, Io had crept into view while i was imaging. Couldnt tell from the camera screen at the time but showed up nicely when on the computer. Stacked and gimped image below.

All the best

Mark

[Astro Imp]

Thanks Alan. Thats now top of the list for next nights targets.

Reviewed the footage from the other night, got a nice surprise, Io had crept into view while i was imaging. Couldnt tell from the camera screen at the time but showed up nicely when on the computer. Stacked and gimped image below.

All the best

Mark

Very nice, well done Mark.

BTW as well as the two white stars at mag 2.0 and 2.9 there is also a 9.5 mag orange star (although I don't see any colour) at 73" located just east of south.

[ardbeg74]

Hi Alan, yea been doing a bit of reading on that,  part of the same system and a spectroscopic double like the other two. Really interesting system. Thanks for the heads up! I prefer doubles that are gravitationally bound rather than optical. Its not that it would look any different if they were optical, but its the knowing that they are orbiting each other. 

I really need to get myself a proper observing list set up, recently Jupiter has been taking an unhealthy chunk of my telescope time...

Cheers

Mark

[Astro Imp]

Hi Mark, living with light pollution doubles make interesting viewing, you might find this helps you produce an observing list. http://tonightssky.com/MainPage.php

You can set your location and pick what type of objects you want to observe, refining your selection to show just what you want.

HTH.

[ardbeg74]

Awesome! thanks mate. Straight into my bookmarks