Who is out to play tonight?

[discardedastro]

6 minutes ago, geordie85 said:

Just done one last focus check. Still going for another hour or so. Then time to tear down again. 

I need an obsy 

Know that feeling. I think I'm going to get at least a few Ha frames in before I tear down, probably 45 mins. I've at least reduced tear down to unplugging an extension lead, carrying in a 12V supply, and popping the lens covers and scope cover on - but still need to be there to do it! That's a lovely looking setup though. All I have is a photo from the setup today.

[JamesF]

Just parked the ED80.  I'll take darks tomorrow I think.  Looks as though some of my blue subs might have been a little affected by dew.  Shift sorting out dew heaters up the priority list :)

Just waiting for darks on the other rig to finish and then if the Moon is high enough to be visible around the corner of the scope room I might grab a few subs of that.  Either way at the moment it appears to have been quite a successful evening.  Could be my last night without socks and a top without full sleeves though :D

James

[discardedastro]

Just now, JamesF said:

Shift sorting out dew heaters up the priority list

I can heartily recommend the Lacerta DeltaT controller, it's kept my guidescope dew-free so far.

Spoke too soon on the meridian flip - platesolved alignment somehow didn't end up landing back on target and I failed to spot the absence of my target in the subs 'till I pulled Blue across to blink in PixInsight. Argh. So now adding a few more blue subs after the Ha, which just aborted 5 minutes in due to a guide fail.... I've got enough data now to make an image, at least!

[geordie85]

28 minutes ago, discardedastro said:

Know that feeling. I think I'm going to get at least a few Ha frames in before I tear down, probably 45 mins. I've at least reduced tear down to unplugging an extension lead, carrying in a 12V supply, and popping the lens covers and scope cover on - but still need to be there to do it! That's a lovely looking setup though. All I have is a photo from the setup today.

That's a beefy looking setup, and your cable management is far better than mine. I've just got everything dangling everywhere. 

 

3 minutes ago, JamesF said:

Just parked the ED80.  I'll take darks tomorrow I think.  Looks as though some of my blue subs might have been a little affected by dew.  Shift sorting out dew heaters up the priority list

Just waiting for darks on the other rig to finish and then if the Moon is high enough to be visible around the corner of the scope room I might grab a few subs of that.  Either way at the moment it appears to have been quite a successful evening.  Could be my last night without socks and a top without full sleeves though

James

You're right. It's been a lovely night

[discardedastro]

1 minute ago, geordie85 said:

That's a beefy looking setup, and your cable management is far better than mine. I've just got everything dangling everywhere. 

Velcro. Velcro everywhere. I've got some sticky-backed velcro pads on the OTA to act as anchors and pads for bits of kit like the Pi, USB hub, and dew controller, and then rings of velcro atop the anchor pads. Then layer velcro atop to secure individual bundles of cables - cheap, and easy to rework when you inevitably change things! That and keeping most of the cables on the OTA - there's only 3 leads from the OTA (mount control, DC, and Ethernet).

[JamesF]

2 minutes ago, geordie85 said:

That's a beefy looking setup, and your cable management is far better than mine. I've just got everything dangling everywhere.

My cabling's a bit wild at the moment, too.  Though it was only this afternoon that I actually put the filter wheel onto the ED80, so I'm still working out where everything needs to go.  I seem to have a very large pile of USB leads that are too long, as well.

James

[don4l]

Best night that I've had in a long time.  I've managed 220 minutes of OIII on the squid in SH1129. 

[JamesF]

The Moon might be getting up now, but I can still make out the Pleiades and Hyades.  That means Orion won't be far behind and "Winter is coming", as I believe they say...

James

[geordie85]

All packed up now. It really has been a great night. 

I managed another 41 x 300 second subs on ngc1275

[smr]

First time imaging the Eastern Veil nebula tonight which was nice. Also first time doing a meridian flip. Not sure if I did it too soon though because when it slewed the veil was a bit off center so I had to use the handcontroller to adjust, test shot, adjust, test shot, restart guiding etc. lost about half an hour. Not easy to see the veil with a DSLR and an unmodded one at that. Would be much easier with a more sensitive astro camera. 

Good conditions though and the Moon washed out the sky around that time anyway. Packed up now and off to bed. Good night!

Edited August 26, 2019 by smr

[carastro]

Still imaging, Did try to have an hours kip downstairs so as not to disturb hubby when the timer went off to wake me up.  Not sure how much I actually slept but some of it.

Imaging still looks to be chugging away.

Probably pack up at 4.30am.  This will be the 3rd 4.30am in a week.  Can't grumble though.

Carole 

 

Edited August 26, 2019 by carastro

[carastro]

Great to have this thread running through the night.

Carole 

[JamesF]

Didn't realise you were still there, Carole

I was looking earlier at "silent alarm clocks", so I could be woken up and come out to do stuff without disturbing my wife.  Most of them look like they'd keep you away just by being hugely uncomfortable though.  Otherwise a FitBit appears to be the recommended option, but that seems a bit pricey to just use as an alarm clock.

James

[carastro]

Just after my last post the next sub had huge star trails and I realised the mount had reached the Meridian so had to come out to rescue it.  Not going through the palaver of a Meridian flip at 4am, so am packing up.

Got the dome back on, was NOT noise free, one of the reasons I don't like doing it, lots of heaving and pulling and metal brackets needing to be clicked into place.

Will be closing down now.

Night night.

Carole

 

[discardedastro]

Got 3 Ha subs, with some small streaking - that needs investigating later. Also need to grab some 900s dark frames. Just finishing off some top-up blue to fill the gap left from my cock-up post-meridian flip and then it's teardown and off to sleep.

It is great to have these nightly threads! Haven't gotten everything to the point where I'm happy sleeping on it, but a nap is mighty tempting. I've been crunching through season 4 of Battlebots instead.

[JamesF]

Just called it a night myself.  I did grab some subs of the Moon before shutting up the observatory.  With the seeing still so good it would have been silly to pass on the opportunity.  I'll have a look at all the data tomorrow.  A very productive night all round, I reckon.

James

[DaveS]

Seeing all these replies is making me kick myself for wimping out at 1.30 last night. Could easily have got another hour and a half on Mel15.

Kick, kick, kick.

But hearing the guide star problems people have had makes me glad I do encoder guiding.

[Paul M]

10 hours ago, david_taurus83 said:

 

I was wondering how you got that multiple exposure trail of ISS tumbling diagonally in the upper left...and with Cassiopeia in the same frame??

Must be 'shopped I thought, then I pegged it as some kind of Clothes Encounter

 

Sorry, my brain really does work this way! 

[Stub Mandrel]

Found the double cluster, saw M31 and M31 clear as day but couldn't see M110. May just have seen the deer lick group. My alt is too slippy and my az is too  sticky, despite use of Mr Sheen. mY best bit of sky for observing was mostly the huge dso-free void south of Cygnus. No nebula filters...

Went to bed at 2:15. Set the rig up to do the Little Dumbell and an alarm for 4:30.

Got up at 4:30 skies seemed a bit pale. Computer had restarted (thanks microsoft) but I think my 'active hours end at 4' so hopefully not too much lost.

Saw moon, so reconnected mount and put on lunar tracking and manually pointed the scope and got a truckload of subs of the new moon before it hit our chimney.

[Neiman]

I was out last night, fantastic night - new to the hobby so was made up that it was clear and I managed to see Saturn. Fantatsic

[Gina]

Still shaking down my equipment - there's a lot that needs sorting out!  From what I did capture the sky seemed pretty good though it didn't look good by eye.

[JamesF]

I really wasn't expecting it to be that good.  And this morning the Quantocks are completely obscured by low cloud, so I think I got lucky.

James

[Gina]

Cloudy and foggy here this morning.   Visibility gradually improving and signs of the sun at last.

Edited August 26, 2019 by Gina

[tooth_dr]

Totally fed up.  Haven’t had a clear night in August (apart from on the full moon)

Last night promised to be clear, ended to messing back and forth between 10:30 to 2am, with intermittent cloud. I finally left it running as it cleared up at 2am, only to check this morning to see all subsequent subs with cloud.

And the forecast for next ten days.

[carastro]

Only just woken up after going to bed at 4.15am.  Luckily I am retired and don't have to go to work the next day.   The dog woke me at 7am wanted to go out for a wee, but I went back to bed again and shut her out of the bedroom.

Just hope I get some reasonable results from my efforts last night.

Carole