Show us your set up in action at night.

[paul mc c]

Imaging the tadpole nebula...

[Captain Scarlet]

On 12/12/2022 at 01:50, markse68 said:

Not in action but out of- but it has been snowing hard and it was dark so decided on a little maintenance ready for Wednesday- mirror clean and matt black tube respray- has made a significant difference that will hopefully improve contrast on Mars. Really lovely little scope to work on this Tal-150p. Also realised I had been collimating wrong as the secondary has no offset 🤦‍♂️ Should improve things too!

Before:

 

After

 

Mark

A quick question Mark … what is the mostly-hidden blue structure supporting your tube in the middle picture? An orange-crate cut into a V or curve? I might need to emulate it for similar purposes…

M

[markse68]

It’s just a blue parts crate i found nearby to the desk i wanted to rest the tube on Magnus- nothing special or modified at all. I just wanted to raise the tube off the deck so a fan heater could be used efficiently to dry the paint quicker (and pre-warm it before spraying) Anything of suitable height would have done.

Mark

[Sunshine]

4 hours ago, Vroobel said:

Thanks.   What do you mean?

Joking about the mount being too small for the scope 😂

[Coxy80]

Chilly night tonight but after so many weeks of clouds just had to get out! 

[JeremyS]

13 minutes ago, Coxy80 said:

Chilly night tonight but after so many weeks of clouds just had to get out! 

Brilliant pic 👍🏻

[OutThereSomewhere]

Here's my Takahashi FSQ106ED on an NEQ6 mount and Berlebach Planet tripod, in their natural habitat. A couple of weeks ago, I set up for the night in a layby near Lochinver, Assynt, Scottish Highlands to image Plaedes. As you can see, I was fighting clouds and the horizons weren't great, but it was a sheltered spot out of the wind. Everything was powered by 3 x 110ah leisure batteries and controlled via my laptop on the deckchair, covered by a towel. It was relatively warm at 6 deg C with no dew! In the foreground, you can see the all-important coffee-making equipment 😄.

[JeremyS]

1 minute ago, OutThereSomewhere said:

Here's my Takahashi FSQ106ED on an NEQ6 mount and Berlebach Planet tripod, in their natural habitat. A couple of weeks ago, I set up for the night in a layby near Lochinver, Assynt, Scottish Highlands to image Plaedes. As you can see, I was fighting clouds and the horizons weren't great, but it was a sheltered spot out of the wind. Everything was powered by 3 x 110ah leisure batteries and controlled via my laptop on the deckchair, covered by a towel. It was relatively warm at 6 deg C with no dew! In the foreground, you can see the all-important coffee-making equipment 😄.

Looks a brilliant location and sky. Quite a trek from Warrington

[OutThereSomewhere]

20 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Looks a brilliant location and sky. Quite a trek from Warrington

I'm lucky enough to be able to drive there with my gear when there was a chance of clear skies at new moon. This was part of a week's driving around Scotland in the hope of good weather. I was lucky with better weather than was forecast and even got to see the aurora for the first time.

Edited December 14, 2022 by OutThereSomewhere

[josefk]

9 hours ago, OutThereSomewhere said:

Here's my Takahashi FSQ106ED on an NEQ6 mount and Berlebach Planet tripod, in their natural habitat. A couple of weeks ago, I set up for the night in a layby near Lochinver, Assynt, Scottish Highlands to image Plaedes. As you can see, I was fighting clouds and the horizons weren't great, but it was a sheltered spot out of the wind. Everything was powered by 3 x 110ah leisure batteries and controlled via my laptop on the deckchair, covered by a towel. It was relatively warm at 6 deg C with no dew! In the foreground, you can see the all-important coffee-making equipment 😄.

absolutely brilliant - the location, the set-up, but especially the coffee making equipment 👍🏼

[josefk]

-5 is still alive (for children of the eighties)

[Sunshine]

3 hours ago, josefk said:

-5 is still alive (for children of the eighties)

Spend the night with Wall-E?

[josefk]

9 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

Spend the night with Wall-E?

 

i'm possibly a year or two older than you @Sunshine. I had Johnny-5 in mind from "Short Circuit":

 

[Sunshine]

2 minutes ago, josefk said:

i'm possibly a year or two older than you @Sunshine. I had Johnny-5 in mind from "Short Circuit":

 

Johnny-5 lands right in my early teens, loved short circuit!

[Nigella Bryant]

Great Mars session last night but very, very cold. I look exhausted at 1.45am but the star's were still great. Don't think I've ever seen Mars so clearly. 

[OK Apricot]

Cold one last night ladies and gents ❄️. Parked the rig to disassemble and bring inside and took a snap. The majority of the night cooling was at 2-3% for -10°C, with the chip reaching -10.3°C with zero cooling between 4-5am 😂. So cold the dew straps started to frost! 

[Sunshine]

1 hour ago, Nigella Bryant said:

Great Mars session last night but very, very cold. I look exhausted at 1.45am but the star's were still great. Don't think I've ever seen Mars so clearly. 

Amazing! right there you look like you’re actually on Mars!

[HollyHound]

This setup (AZ100, FC-100DZ and Mewlon 180) has been out since 6pm and am popping out for 20min sessions… beautiful views of Mars, Jupiter and now M42 😃

But it’s absolutely freezing out there 🥶

Going out again in a few hours before bed 🤞

[Nigella Bryant]

Just in, I'm absolutely frozen, never seen the inside of my dome freezing up before. I had my heated gloves on, my heated back pad but my feet I could not feel. Jupiter was great, red spot was just coming onto the disk when I went out and Mars although not as good as last night had many features visible. Used 500gb of data, lol. 

[Sunshine]

6 minutes ago, Nigella Bryant said:

Just in, I'm absolutely frozen, never seen the inside of my dome freezing up before. I had my heated gloves on, my heated back pad but my feet I could not feel. Jupiter was great, red spot was just coming onto the disk when I went out and Mars although not as good as last night had many features visible. Used 500gb of data, lol. 

Love those dome images with Orion looming! and as for frozen limbs, they’re only an issue while you can still feel them, afterwards you’re good to go for the night.

[Nigella Bryant]

24 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

Love those dome images with Orion looming! and as for frozen limbs, they’re only an issue while you can still feel them, afterwards you’re good to go for the night.

I should have stayed out longer then, lol. I think santa is bringing some thermal boot's for Christmas, lol. 

[markse68]

Really good seeing tonight and pretty cold! Sorrels are doing a grand job though  Mars of course!

Mark

[Vroobel]

It just ends, we have a rain now. I hope the rain won't turn into ice again... 

[Neil H]

Here are 2 of mine  Mak 180 pro and bresser 127 refractor 

[TakMan]

An unexpected clear spell, so out imaging again - four nights on the trot now! Not as cold tonight, but nipped outside with a Coffee (plus Baileys!) to take in the view… saw a few Geminids the last few sessions. Just slewed the scope over to M45 to start getting the colour component for this data set - Blue tonight as we’re right on the Meridian, so perfect position for that colour…. and no moon either…

Thank the Lord for TeamViewer - although I usually run it on a laptop, tonight it’s via the iPad, so I can stay in the house watching some recorded TV with the wife - don’t want her to feel she has become an astronomy widow….

Last night was the first time I’ve left the gear completely unattended - work was sponsoring the Lichfield Illuminated Cathedral, so with complementary tickets in hand, we went to enjoy that - TeamViewer on the iPhone then, just to keep an eye on things - quite amazing the tools we have at our disposal now, isn’t it..?!

FSQ on my Scopebuggy inspired dolly - makes set up a 20 minute routine that I now have down to a fine art!

 

 

 

Wishing you all a good Christmas - with a sprinkling of clear skies!

Damian

Edited December 18, 2022 by TakMan
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