Show us your set up in action at night.

[Sunshine]

14 minutes ago, SwiMatt said:

Rich and satisfying impromptu Lunar session early this morning. 

Nice, I’m assuming that net wasn’t an obstruction? 

[SwiMatt]

14 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

Nice, I’m assuming that net wasn’t an obstruction? 

Somewhat surprisingly, it's not! It can become a problem in windy conditions, but even for Solar obervation I haven't found it to disturb the views in any way.

 

[bosun21]

3 hours ago, SwiMatt said:

Somewhat surprisingly, it's not! It can become a problem in windy conditions, but even for Solar obervation I haven't found it to disturb the views in any way.

 

Probably because it's so far out of focus.

[CraigT82]

Catching some photons from M39 tonight - Open Cluster in Cygnus.

[Simon Pepper]

Snap trying out the pier extension tonight no more missing an hour of photons whilst getting to close to the mount. 5th night on the ? Nebula!

[CraigT82]

7 hours ago, Simon Pepper said:

Snap trying out the pier extension tonight no more missing an hour of photons whilst getting to close to the mount. 5th night on the ? Nebula!

How did you get on? I’m not confident enough to go to bed and leave it running yet (unless I’m %100 convinced it won’t rain - which I wasn’t yesterday with all the showers we had).  Stopped it running about midnight with about 2 hrs of data in the bag. 
 

Is that an ES frac? 

[bosun21]

Out setting up two scopes in anticipation of clear skies from 10pm - 5am 🤞. Set up my 10" dobsonian to image the planets and do a bit of EAA while waiting for Jupiter and Mars to ascend in the sky. Also setting up my new HEQ5 with my 120ED for some visual and to put the new mount through its paces.

 

[Simon Pepper]

On 28/09/2024 at 07:14, CraigT82 said:

How did you get on? I’m not confident enough to go to bed and leave it running yet (unless I’m %100 convinced it won’t rain - which I wasn’t yesterday with all the showers we had).  Stopped it running about midnight with about 2 hrs of data in the bag. 
 

Is that an ES frac? 

Sorry Craig only just seen this. Yep all good as usual no issues. I always leave mine running and go to bed I’m the complete lazy astronomer lol! Don’t get me wrong I have had some mount strikes no doubt I see the small marks on the dew shield not to mention coming down a few times with the scope pointing in all kinds of directions with cables wrapped around a few times, but thankfully this is quite rare I would say out of 100 nights this occurs once and once detangled and reset the mount and scope always perform the next time out. I do make sure I do not tighten the clutches too much though so the gears don’t break but never had any lasting effects caused by it. When it comes to the weather though 100% any chance of rain I wouldn’t ever leave it out, but once no rain was forecast and I notice when waking up the ground was damp, but again it just wasn’t enough rain to cause any lasting issues maybe compatible to a really bad dew session! Yes this is a es127 Ed i wasn’t a fan it of it at first but it’s been my goto scope now for about a year now once dialled in it does the job really well especially with the reducer which speeds it up! 

Edited October 3 by Simon Pepper

[TakMan]

(Trying) to image last night - ‘damn’ the aurora!

Will have to see what got through the 3nm SII filter….

[Ratlet]

Was hoping to give it a go for eaa tonight but the wind was still gusting hard at midnight and I gave up in the end.  I did get everything dry fit though which was nice.

First time where I have serious concerns about the scope hitting the leg.  I'll need to have a think and see if I can get a bit more weight on the front.

Not a complete bust though.  Monday looks good weather wise and with any luck I can get a heater up the summerhouse and some electricity and do eaa in the warm.  Maybe even have the dob setup at the same time.

What was nice was whilst I was out I think I've figured out the absolute perfect spot to setup. Probably optimal views north, south and east.  Really on lose it towards the north west.

Those if a sensitive disposition, avert thine eyes from the horror of my shed.  It looks even worse from the outside, but is completely watertight.

[markse68]

Had a really nice fun evening with the Flamsteed out on Blackheath last night- around 100 visitors! and loads of curious kids getting wowed by views of the Moon and Saturn. After the clouds passed we got a nice window of really good clarity and I was able to easily find Andromeda, the Ring nebula and the Dumbbell nebula- a few old faves. And my first sighting of the Comet earlier on 😀

Mark

my scope

the crowds 

[SwiMatt]

I need sun glasses! 

[Sunshine]

14 minutes ago, SwiMatt said:

I need sun glasses! 

Wouldn’t it be nice of there were H-alpha sunglasses!

[SwiMatt]

12 hours ago, Sunshine said:

Wouldn’t it be nice of there were H-alpha sunglasses!

That would indeed be great!! 😂 Although in my case it wouldn't have made a difference as I was looking at the Moon...

Edited Wednesday at 09:50 by SwiMatt

[Sunshine]

17 hours ago, SwiMatt said:

That would indeed be great!! 😂 Although in my case it wouldn't have made a difference as I was looking at the Moon...

Oh! Lol, that looks like everything is silhouetted in sunshine!