Show us your set up in action at night.

[Vroobel]

1 hour ago, Dave scutt said:

Reminds me of bad robot. 

 

 

 

IMHO rather WALL-E... 

[paul mc c]

Old school and new school....

[CCD-Freak]

Waiting for nightfall.....(^8   My old Celestron C8 on an iOptron GEM45 mount on a Todmorden pier at my SRO dark site.  Getting ready to image some galaxies.

[Vroobel]

Hi, 

Cooling down before hunting the M51. Hopefully tonight it will be first light for my new ASIAir Plus with the CGX. I'm very curious of their cooperation in terms of PA and guiding. It will be also test of how flat is my field after making the light path more rigid. Busy night, busy me...

 

[JeremyS]

Not quite night, but observing Venus at dusk

[Mr Spock]

Just looking at Venus...

By the way, it is relatively dark. Those are 10s and 15s exposures on the D500 and processed in DxO Photolab 5 

[Captain Scarlet]

Last night, a wonderful clear night just before I packed up around 1:30am.

 

[WolfieGlos]

SF102 aimed up at the Needle galaxy. Finally some clear skies, and more to come in the forecast 🤞 

Gemini tonight looked like it had either found a long lost triplet or changed to mimic Scorpios….when in fact it’s actually Mars, with Venus taking up the role of Antares 😆

[Stu]

8 hours ago, Captain Scarlet said:

Last night, a wonderful clear night just before I packed up around 1:30am.

 

We need a ‘wow’ option on the ‘like’ emojis 👍👍

[Vroobel]

Hi, 

Two hours before the run: coming back to origins and another level of the setup? 

After some significant amends described in the following post... 

... recently I found that the ASIair Plus supports the OnStep, so I cannot resist and must try it all together. 

ATM EQ fork mount, Bresser Messier 10" F/5 Newtonian, ZWO EAF, ASI 2600MC-Pro, Baader MPCC III, SW Evoguide 50ED, ASI 224MC, a home-made dew heaters controller, ASIair Plus  and... my smartphone instead of laptop with VNC. 

I love the external antenna of the ASIair Plus for it's awesome WiFi range! 😳 It's much better than the simple Raspberry Pi (Astroberry). 

 

Edited May 15, 2023 by Vroobel

[bosun21]

Got the Starfield out cooling. Forecast says 4 hours clear skies however I can see ominous clouds gathering in the south. I hope the forecast wins out otherwise I’ll be peeved 🙄

[John]

I've switched from the FC100-DL to the ED120 now that it is getting darker. It will be interesting to see the difference that 20mm of aperture makes to spotting that quasar in Virgo !

 

 

 

Edited May 15, 2023 by John

[Stu]

FS-128 out again tonight but with a bit better prep. Hopefully should be able to find stuff this evening.

[WolfieGlos]

Forecast has clear skies every night this week here, if that’s only half true I’ll be very lucky! That’s the bbc weather app, Clear Outside suggests otherwise naturally …

So best make the most of it, Starfield 102 all set up at 9.30, a lovely silhouette at dusk running alignment checks. If the forecast is correct … I’ve already pre-warned a work colleague that I’ll be tired and/or late in tomorrow 😆 

[Froeng]

one form last night...

[bosun21]

Out last night again to catch our last sliver of darkness. Had a decent night with clusters in twilight and several galaxies and PN’s. An enjoyable night considering how short the astro dark was.

[Guest]

It has been forever since we have had a sky even worth setting up under.  Well for the first time since November we have a chance to go all in.  Last night it rained and washed all the dust out of the air, late this afternoon the clouds broke up leaving us with blue skies and not one cloud to be seen.  This could be the first multi hour observation night i have had since mid November. 

[Sunshine]

7 minutes ago, Mike Q said:

It has been forever since we have had a sky even worth setting up under.  Well for the first time since November we have a chance to go all in.  Last night it rained and washed all the dust out of the air, late this afternoon the clouds broke up leaving us with blue skies and not one cloud to be seen.  This could be the first multi hour observation night i have had since mid November. 

That right there is heaven! 

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

That right there is heaven! 

It isnt to bad at all.... As long as the clouds stay away.  Here in a bit i will pour myself a fine single malt over cooling cubes and be heading out for final alignments. 

[JOC]

On 13/05/2023 at 23:32, Captain Scarlet said:

a wonderful clear night just before I packed up around 1:30am.

You must have some seriously dark skies, we aren't bad here, but I don't see the Milkyway like that at all.

[josefk]

I particularly enjoy setting up while its still light and then sitting back to enjoy the twilight transition. Here set up and ready for a second evening hunting smudgy galaxies...

A new RACI finder I have fitted here works a treat ergonomically underslung on the OTA like this. Didn't help me out much when push came to shove in the sparse star field around the stuff i was trying to see though!

Edited May 22, 2023 by josefk

[Sunshine]

Waiting for sunset.

Edited May 23, 2023 by Sunshine

[Ratlet]

Doesn't get much better than this.  Would have liked a bit more dark and a bit darker dark, but beggars can't be choosers.

[bosun21]

I have more or less abandoned night observing until the dark returns. I may pop out for a few doubles or open clusters though. It’s time to give my Starfield wedge a bit of use to satisfy my needs.

[Guest]

46 minutes ago, Ratlet said:

Doesn't get much better than this.  Would have liked a bit more dark and a bit darker dark, but beggars can't be choosers.

Thats dark?  I wont complain about the darkness we have here anymore lol