Show us your set up in action at night.

[josefk]

Strange session last night. The sky was evolving all night sometimes brilliant, sometimes horrible. Anyway here my baby-q on wide field duty in front of Orion (that i never really did look at last night)…

[powerlord]

Had a trial last night trying to setup 3rd mount with dual cameras. Got there in the end. So tonight, clear skies, 48 hours of imaging!! Two setup in obsy, 2 setup outside...

 

[bosun21]

Better prepared for tonights observing session. Using the MBII's with the Starfield on the planets. Roll on the dark.

 

[powerlord]

1 hour ago, powerlord said:

Had a trial last night trying to setup 3rd mount with dual cameras. Got there in the end. So tonight, clear skies, 48 hours of imaging!! Two setup in obsy, 2 setup outside...

 

Just waiting for it to get dark - forecast still totally clear skies... but hmm... seems weird colour cloud in distance out window - huh must just be the light.

5 mins later - total cloud and raining!!!!!! mad rush to cover stuff outside. arggggggggg

meteblue still saying I'm imagining rain, but now to expect some at 9pm.

https://www.meteoblue.com/en/weather/week/ipswich_united-kingdom_2646057

ahhhhhhh

Edited October 14, 2023 by powerlord

[powerlord]

well rain stopped - an hour of cold setup, and 3 rigs and 4 cameras all imaging. should be on for 40 hours in total 😁

and now for the best bit...

[powerlord]

After removal of bad subs and finishing all my integrations - a grand total of 24 1/2 hours of integration last night - a new personal record for October I think!

It looks like that's all the weather gods are giving me for at least the next week - hence the need to maximise the days I get.

stu

[WolfieGlos]

Evening, from holidaying in The Broads. Brought the tracker on the off chance it might be clear…

Not only is it clear, but we’re staying in a small hamlet with NO streetlights, all houses are mostly in darkness and this is the view from the back door! Unbelievable, and no I didn’t research this!

Sadly I forgot the dew straps so I’m out every 5 minutes wiping off dew 🫣 Decided to try the 35mm macro f2.8 lens, corner stars are triangles but otherwise it looks surprisingly promising aimed up at Sadr. Will find out if it’s any good in a week when we’re back 🤞Won’t be up all night, I but had to try some imaging.

[powerlord]

9 hours ago, WolfieGlos said:

Evening, from holidaying in The Broads. Brought the tracker on the off chance it might be clear…

Not only is it clear, but we’re staying in a small hamlet with NO streetlights, all houses are mostly in darkness and this is the view from the back door! Unbelievable, and no I didn’t research this!

Sadly I forgot the dew straps so I’m out every 5 minutes wiping off dew 🫣 Decided to try the 35mm macro f2.8 lens, corner stars are triangles but otherwise it looks surprisingly promising aimed up at Sadr. Will find out if it’s any good in a week when we’re back 🤞Won’t be up all night, I but had to try some imaging.

Wow, just shows what difference a few miles make. Total cloud down here. Unlucky with the dew, last night was dew free.

[WolfieGlos]

14 hours ago, powerlord said:

Wow, just shows what difference a few miles make. Total cloud down here. Unlucky with the dew, last night was dew free.

Wow, it was so clear I thought it must have been the same for miles around. It’s predicting tomorrow to be the same, so fingers crossed the wife doesn’t mind again 🙂

Yeah, dew was pretty bad and that lens doesn’t even have a hood so it was completely exposed. Still took flats, but probably in vain. I might put the 200mm f2.8 lens to use tomorrow, perhaps see if the hood could act as a dew shield.

[maw lod qan]

Daytime okay?

My daughter asked,

Dad is that filter made with a cake pan?

Uh, yeah! It works!

Edited October 16, 2023 by maw lod qan

[DirkSteele]

Dragged the APM LZOS 130/1200 across London for the Baker Street Irregular Astronomers star party the other night in Regent’s Park.

BT (Nebula) Tower in the background.

[Stu]

An extremely quick first light for this old girl, a 77mm f11.8 Hilkin on its original EQ mount.

[Sunshine]

3 hours ago, Stu said:

An extremely quick first light for this old girl, a 77mm f11.8 Hilkin on its original EQ mount.

That looks so classic!

[John]

Very nice !

Where did that clear patch of sky come from ?????

Nothing doing here tonight - drizzle and solid cloud 😒

[Mr Spock]

Lol, clear sky. My rain gauge is currently on 78mm and the rain's not stopping anytime soon 

[powerlord]

7 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Lol, clear sky. My rain gauge is currently on 78mm and the rain's not stopping anytime soon 

Think of how clear the sky will be after all that washing though. 😉

[Stu]

7 hours ago, John said:

Very nice !

Where did that clear patch of sky come from ?????

Nothing doing here tonight - drizzle and solid cloud 😒

Not sure John! It’s been pretty grotty here but we have had some sunshine, and when I saw the Moon I thought I would have a quick go. Only about 15 mins though.

[Stu]

7 hours ago, Sunshine said:

That looks so classic!

Looks nice, doesn’t it!

I tried it first using the supplied 0.965” diagonal and eyepieces but they weren’t too good. I switched to a Baader Zeiss T2 prism and my 0.965” Circle V Orthos and that sharpened things up nicely 👍 Main problem, as always with small scopes for me was floaters at high powers 😞

[JeremyS]

I passed 2 trout, a salmon and a frogman on the way out to the observatory last night 🤔

[Stu]

1 hour ago, JeremyS said:

I passed 2 trout, a salmon and a frogman on the way out to the observatory last night 🤔

Sounds like a fine supper for you Jeremy, I bet the frogman was rubbery! 🤣

[John]

The transparency is really poor but I can at least see some of the brighter stars plus Saturn and Jupiter so a scope had to go out !

I picked the Tak FC100-DL because it has virtually zero cool down time so it's up and running at 180x and 225x from the off. Nice views of Saturn but it's fainter moons are hard to pick out (unsurprisingly).  Slight fuzzy mobile snap - hands shaking a bit from the sheer shock of actually being able to observe something !! 🙄

 

[tooth_dr]

First light 🤩

[IB20]

Love the Starwave 102edr more each time I use it. Just had some gorgeous views of Saturn and Jupiter with not a drop of false colour. Picked up Tethys, Rhea, Titan and Iapetus nicely. Dione and field star TYC-5809-0927-1 popping in and out of visibility too. Located Uranus nice and easily too with the 17.5mm Morpheus - every eyepiece I own works in this scope flawlessly. 
 

Clouds have sadly turned up now, boooooo!

 

Edited October 21, 2023 by IB20

[Sunshine]

6 minutes ago, IB20 said:

Love the Starwave 102edr more each time I use it. Just had some gorgeous views of Saturn and Jupiter with not a drop of false colour. Picked up Tethys, Rhea, Dione and Iapetus nicely. Dione and field star TYC-5809-0927-1 popping in and out of visibility too. Located Uranus nice and easily too with the 17.5mm Morpheus - every eyepiece I own works in this scope flawlessly. 
 

Clouds have sadly turned up now, boooooo!

 

Sounds like a great 4” you have, i wonder if it is the same scope as the Starfield 102.

[IB20]

Just now, Sunshine said:

Sounds like a great 4” you have, i wonder if it is the same scope as the Starfield 102.

I’m fairly sure it is, and the TS 102ED, possibly even the Astrotech 102edl. One of the more knowledgeable members here will know who makes the various iterations of the scope.