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Anyone else out tonight?

JamesF

By JamesF
in The Astro Lounge

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JamesF

JamesF

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It's the first genuinely clear evening (thus far, at least) here in about four months, my wife is about to call it a night, the dew heaters are finally ready and I have the SCT mounted up to spend some time on Jupiter.  In fact the SCT dewed up almost as soon as I took the lens cover off so I'm just waiting for the tapes to sort that out.  According to the forecast it's supposed to be about 3C, but the outside of the tube already has dew frozen on it.

The only downside is that I had a dreadful night's sleep last night and am really feeling quite tired.  Still, sleep is for wimps, eh? :D

James

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ScottS

ScottS

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Just packed up and come in now. Had a good session though. Great views of M42 through the 18mm. All 4 Galilean moons present around Jupiter, and a quick peek at M31. I didn't realise how spectacular Sirius looks low down in the sky - those colours! :eek: Like a disco mirror ball. The clouds have just rolled in though, but not a bad couple of hours. I did spot a very red star about half way between Orion and the Pleiades - looks like Aldebaran on my map - almost as red as Betelgeuse!

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Pig

Pig

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Ive been in about an hour James :cool: thin cloud has started to come over but I had a good couple of hours.

Do you know the name of the red star is that is in the middle of the double cluster ?

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JamesF

JamesF

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Just packed up and come in now. Had a good session though. Great views of M42 through the 18mm. All 4 Galilean moons present around Jupiter, and a quick peek at M31. I didn't realise how spectacular Sirius looks low down in the sky - those colours! :eek: Like a disco mirror ball. The clouds have just rolled in though, but not a bad couple of hours. I did spot a very red star about half way between Orion and the Pleiades - looks like Aldebaran on my map - almost as red as Betelgeuse!

Definitely Aldebaran.  Given the right conditions it certainly looks very red to me.

James

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Jase_v2

Jase_v2

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not a hope in the preverbial here - been like it for weeks - only clear nights are when Im working them lately! Hope ypu have a good session- i new got an O-III for crimbo n no chance so far - and another atlantic storm heading our way.

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JamesF

JamesF

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Ive been in about an hour James :cool: thin cloud has started to come over but I had a good couple of hours.

Do you know the name of the red star is that is in the middle of the double cluster ?

To the best of my knowledge there are several red stars in the cluster.  I don't think any have specific names though.  I believe there was a discussion about it here some time back, but I can't find the thread at the moment.

James

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jason.p

jason.p

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Just been out, minus 3 now. Dew heaters working well, even the Telrad one.

Started with Andromeda, then M33. Orion neb was spectacular, really bright and clear. Managed to split Rigel and Polaris. Tried to find the Garnet star but lost my way! It felt good to get a decent session in and try out my new bits and pieces:)

Sent from my GT-P5110 using Tapatalk

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JamesF

JamesF

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Now that's a bit on the chilly side :(

The dew is taking some time to clear from my SCT.  It looks like there's as much condensation on the inside of the corrector as there is on the outside.  How that happens I'm really not sure.  I'll have to get the heaters on earlier in future I think.

James

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frugal

frugal

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For the first time in ages I managed to get out with the camera. I managed over 5 hours before imaging with my new Astrotrac before I started to get too cold. I am now inside with a stiff drink whilst the laptop keeps going to take all of the darks for the evening. 

I completely failed to find Andromeda (I know, it's embarrassing), I did manage to image Pleiades and the Beehive cluster, along with some playing around with the camera. I do need to find a better way of focusing the camera as with a 300mm zoom lens on, I can not use live view to focus.

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moffer

moffer

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Was hoping to venture out to a dark site for the first time tonight, but somethings cropped up and my son can't make it - he's the man with the car and the scope!  I'm really disappointed as conditions here look excellent for DSOs .  :sad:

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David_Pickles

David_Pickles

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I've been out for nearly 4 hours, including setting up time, and the dew heaters are still holding up. Despite a couple of clouds rolling through briefly, I got some good raw images of the Horsehead and Flame Nebulas. However, I am just about to call it a night so will leave the processing until the morning.

Good night all!

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JamesF

JamesF

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I've just finished bringing my kit in having decided to call it a night because I couldn't relocate Jupiter after my meridian flip.  That sounds quite pathetic, but it wasn't in the field of view after the flip and the finder objective (which I haven't yet made a dew shield for) was dewed up both inside and out.  I did hunt around a bit by eye, but I just couldn't find it.

A not entirely productive evening, but not a waste of one either.  My home-made dew heaters and controller seem to work fine, though even at maximum struggled to clear the dew on the inside of the SCT corrector.  I've never seen a corrector (or finder for that matter) dew up on the inside before, so I need to give that some thought.  It may perhaps just be that the air is so moist to start with.  If all else fails I guess I can make up a second heater strap to fit the OTA and run it from another channel on the controller.  I'm not sure how much the straps are costing me to make, but it can't be more than a couple of pounds each.

I think I'm also going to have to bite the bullet and buy a secondary focuser for the SCT.  Perhaps a decent 2x barlow too.  Adding my 2.5x barlow behind another focuser is probably going to be asking too much.  Then I'll motorise the focuser so I don't have to touch the OTA to focus.

Visually, there were times when I could see the Milky Way quite easily this evening.  I could also pick up the three Messier objects in Auriga naked eye and I reckon I could also make out the stars in the "bent tuning fork" asterism in the same constellation.  M31 was also naked eye, as was M44.  It's the first time I've seen M44 this season so I was pleased about that.

James

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reader34

reader34

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I can't wait for the day when I can observe the Milky Way. One day hopefully.

It's been the best viewing conditions for a while. Norwich has had over 6 hours of clears skies! 

Unfortunately had a disaster... Me being a noob with Astrophotography, my focus tube wasn't tight/firm enough ( Sorry can't really explain). Was taking 30 minutes worth of exposures (M31), uploaded them into the stacking program... no stars found! Checked in Photoshop - pictures were out of focus :(  

Is there anyway stopping that from happing again? I focused with my Bahtinov mask before and all seemed alright! I assume the angle of the telescope and the weight of the DSLR doesn't help lol..

BahtinovBahtinov
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