20.05.2020 The seeing went to hell as soon as the mist cleared!

[Rusted]

Early efforts were rewarded more than I deserve. I was saved by ImPPG.
Then the cloud arrived! It's going to be one of those days!

I am trialing my T-S binoviewer GPCs on the ASI174 1.25" camera adapter. 1.6x and 2.6x.
Quite pleased with the variation in scale compared with my usual 2x WO Barlow.
They offer useful variations in power depending on the seeing conditions.

 

 

[TakMan]

Very nice... know what you mean about the seeing!

Had a quick go, but now have mother to look after, so it’ll be later when I get to review the data... left the gear out in case I get back sooner than expected... perhaps conditions will have improved- best of luck with your endeavours!

Looks like you’ve sorted that noise issue, what was the cause..?

D

Edited May 20, 2020 by TakMan

[Rusted]

13 minutes ago, TakMan said:

Very nice... know what you mean about the seeing!

Had a quick go, but now have mother to look after, so it’ll be later when I get to review the data... left the gear out in case I get back sooner than expected... perhaps conditions will have improved- best of luck with your endeavours!

Looks like you’ve sorted that noise issue, what was the cause..?

D

Thanks. No idea what was causing the noise. Probably thermal?

I am experimenting with shading the telescope objective when not actively capturing video.
The ASI174 is showing 39C after not capturing anything for half an hour. So I have also closed SharpCap.

The cloudy conditions are giving me time to try stapling some white shade material on the open shutters.
I was seeing 44C on the shutters. Now I just need some sun to capture a few comparison images.
Though It doesn't look any better on the monitor!

 

[David Smith]

Nice. Seeing was best early here too. Visual white light disk was super steady first thing but after about 8am the seeing became more unpredictable. Just as I started my first imaging run!

[Rusted]

Thanks.

I have just discovered a blind spot in my thermal deliberations.
My large, pitched, shed roof is right beside the observatory on the east side.
I have measured the sunny side of the roof at 50C! Eek!
It's no wonder my seeing goes off so quickly as the sun rises!

I'm thinking of replacing the tired, old, dark red, corrugated, fibre/asphalt. [Onduline.]
Probably choose white painted, corrugated steel for lightness
Though I have no real idea how cool that remains in practice.
I'm just guessing as to its reflectivity in the infra red.
 

Update: White painted steel is very efficient compared with most other materials:
Solar reflectance up 80% and emissivity about 0.9.

Edited May 20, 2020 by Rusted
Update:

[richard ashbee]

love the detail

[Pete Presland]

Some nice detail despite the seeing conditions.