Why I prefer simple setups ......

[John]

Evenings like this are rather trying

Clear late afternoon so I set the 12 inch dob up.

Got the scope cooled and had about 45 minutes observing Mars plus a few of the brighter galaxies.

In for supper. Out again around 18:45 to find cloud layer spreading across the sky and thickening. After a further 30 minutes all clouded out and looking to stay that way, so I bought the dob back in.

Around 21:30 the sky was clearing fast with Orion starting to show nicely. I put out a refractor this time and had some nice low power views of the Auriga clusters while it cooled. Mars by now was scintillating but not in a good way. Lots of heating plumes around. The bottom right corner of Orion was showing in a better part of the sky so had about 20 minutes on the double stars in that area. Quite nice.

But what's this ? - more tendrils of cloud and also a bank of fog rolling slowing in. Soon just the odd glimpses of clear sky were showing, almost as if the sky was taunting the hapless astronomer 

Gave things another 20 minutes but no joy so the refractor came in from the cold.

On the positive side, it is evenings like this that remind me why I have scopes that are simple and quick to setup and to tear down and bring in. If I used more complex scopes with longer setup and alignment routines I probably would not have seen the sky at all tonight.

Now what is the betting that it's clear again an hour from now ?  According to "Clear Outside" I may get a break in the clouds / fog at 2:00 am for an hour. Not sure I'll wait up though

 

 

Edited December 7, 2020 by John

[NGC 1502]

Well done for persistence.  It’s been cloudy for so long in Essex it will be a shock to see some stars.  Forecast for the weekend looks dire and my local club has events planned for both our dark sites.....

clouds plus the rule of six outdoors.....😢

Ed.

[paul mc c]

Having the exact same night here,had the obsy opened ready to do a bit of AP,looking good and clear....but is that rain i feel...yes,clear sky but to the north there was cloud and with the breeze it is blowing the rain my way arrgh,every thing closed down,turned all off opened the obsy door........dam it,rain blew over and clear.So out with the az4 and 127 mak and spent a while hassle free observing,and then rain again.

 

[johninderby]

Fog moved in as it got dark and showing no signs of shifting.  I’m forgetting what a clear sky looks like. 🙁

Edited December 7, 2020 by johninderby

[Ships and Stars]

Sounds like a nice observing session actually. Simple is good. Nothing worse than setting up the big scope and doing an alignment, then watching a wall of cloud move in. Well, except perhaps driving 40 miles to do that, then immediately taking it back down! 

My 300p flextube is broadly similar, sets up quickly, doesn't have goto, didn't want it on that one. Telrad and raci and I'm off. 

The weather here is utterly dire. Something like 36 hours of off/on rain and flood alerts. Next week not looking good either, maybe a small window Wed night. 

Glad someone is getting out a bit!

[Sunshine]

Yes, please give me manual and powerless telescopes/mounts which i can have up and in action in the time it takes me to walk out and set it down. My vixen GP is only guided when i need one axis and that involved plugging on the 4cell battery pack and controller, easy as pie, otherwise i love turning knobs to move the scope.

Edited December 7, 2020 by Sunshine

[AlexK]

This concept is known as GAG: "Grab and Go".

For some that's a small refractor, for others (me) it's a 12" classic Dobsonian thanks to my Dolly (short range GAG) and Cradle (long range GAG).

[John]

50 minutes ago, AlexK said:

This concept is known as GAG: "Grab and Go".

For some that's a small refractor, for others (me) it's a 12" classic Dobsonian thanks to my Dolly (short range GAG) and Cradle (long range GAG).

Yes, a familiar and much discussed concept here

Fortunately my 12 inch dobsonian weighs around the same as most 10 inch dobs so is pretty quick and easy to setup for a 12 inch aperture scope. 

As well as the setup and tear down, I need to be able to move the scope around during a session to avoid light sources, trees, neighbours rooflines etc so that is a factor in the scopes and mounts that I use.

Can't escape the impact of clouds though

 

 

[Tiago Ferreira]

More or less the same here. Finished now for today for the same reasons. 3 times out and in, 12" dob plus a refractor and binoculars. worth it, light and fast movements. Saw jupiter and saturn together, some nebulae, galaxies, mars, clusters, pleiades, more clusters and the usual end of party looking for the horse head, well, looking at it but without seeing nothing. The unique horse head i see every night is the head of the horse in my chimney lol. Here is my astrophoto of it, it is in the same field but my smartphone doesn't catch the stars behind.

 

 

[RobertI]

What you say seems all too common for me too John. Most of my observing these days takes the form of “guerrilla” style raids on the garden with light weight manual setups to try and make the most of an unexpected clear spell. Maximum observing, minimum setup. I think i am missing a mid-weight mount in my arsenal  though - the Skytee on a 2” tripod is pretty heavy and the Giro-WR on a photo tripod is too spindly, I need something in between for the 102ED......

[Mr Spock]

When I decided to get rid of my EQ6/C925 due to my back problems, I also decided to return to light and portable set up.

I have a cold porch to store the OTA which is why, despite their reputation for long cool down times, I went for a 150mm Rumak. Add to that an EQ5 (with motors), and I can do some serious astronomy with little or no effort. I can even take the whole thing to dark skies.

[Ags]

For surgical strikes I have ST80 and C6 dual mounted on a Berlebach Castor (on a Berlebach Report tripod). But I only have the one tripod so I don't do nearly enough surgical strikes!

"Need" another tripod...

Edited December 8, 2020 by Ags

[tomato]

The other alternative is to build a permanent observatory, then complex kit can be up and running in 5 minutes. Or more likely, you can watch the rain dripping off the roof...

[scarp15]

' Soon just the odd glimpses of clear sky were showing, as if the sky was taunting the hapless astronomer'. Couldn't agree more and we can all relate to this. And yet there is something quite soothing within that circumstance. Watching something disappear behind a blanket of cloud, almost an acceptance of inevitability, then patiently waiting to see if that something will re emerge.  This 'acceptance' is easier from home though, when away at some remoter place, the inevitable, requires a coffee break and nap in the car.

[Captain Scarlet]

I too had a disappointing night for slightly different but by no means uncommon reasons. I’ve started a separate thread rather than hijack John’s.

My problems were dew, and rapid temperature change.

tonight should be better though, hairdryer assisted...

Magnus

Edited December 8, 2020 by Captain Magenta
replaced "meeting thread" (??) with "separate thread"

[John]

3 hours ago, tomato said:

The other alternative is to build a permanent observatory, then complex kit can be up and running in 5 minutes. Or more likely, you can watch the rain dripping off the roof...

I wish I had room. My other half has a greenhouse which takes up the space that an observatory ought to be sat in. If we move somewhere one day with a longer garden then a proper dome will be an early addition.

 

[Jiggy 67]

Another alternative is leaving everything setup under a cover. I use GoTo on a heavy mount and a reasonably large scope. Everything is left outside, polar aligned and star aligned. With a good cover I have never suffered from water ingress etc and I can be on my first target within 10 minutes and no lifting in and out of the house at all

[Nik271]

7 minutes ago, Jiggy 67 said:

Another alternative is leaving everything setup under a cover. I use GoTo on a heavy mount and a reasonably large scope. Everything is left outside, polar aligned and star aligned. With a good cover I have never suffered from water ingress etc and I can be on my first target within 10 minutes and no lifting in and out of the house at all

I used to do that in the summer but in winter I'm worried that moisture will get inside the equipment. It's been terribly wet recently

[John]

21 minutes ago, Jiggy 67 said:

Another alternative is leaving everything setup under a cover. I use GoTo on a heavy mount and a reasonably large scope. Everything is left outside, polar aligned and star aligned. With a good cover I have never suffered from water ingress etc and I can be on my first target within 10 minutes and no lifting in and out of the house at all

I do have a cover that I can use if it looks like there might be a shower but I use this mostly for outreach observing. My scopes are all used on un-driven alt-az mounts so no alignment is needed. I do most of my observing from our small patio so leaving a large setup in place for some time is not really practical.

Interesting to hear what works for you though

 

[Jiggy 67]

15 minutes ago, Nik271 said:

I used to do that in the summer but in winter I'm worried that moisture will get inside the equipment. It's been terribly wet recently

I’m not gonna lie, you have to be prepared to dig deep and buy a good cover (TG 365) and even a cheaper one as well for underneath that when really severe rain is forecast but I can assure you that I have never had a problem, a bit of condensation maybe but equipment can deal with that, it’s designed for it. I keep my newt out but I may not keep my soon to arrive frac out.

 I work and arrive home in the dark, I just know I wouldn’t bother if I had to drag everything in and out , even if it was a much simpler setup which is difficult in light polluted skies at the best of times

[Paz]

On 08/12/2020 at 08:15, RobertI said:

What you say seems all too common for me too John. Most of my observing these days takes the form of “guerrilla” style raids on the garden with light weight manual setups to try and make the most of an unexpected clear spell. Maximum observing, minimum setup. I think i am missing a mid-weight mount in my arsenal  though - the Skytee on a 2” tripod is pretty heavy and the Giro-WR on a photo tripod is too spindly, I need something in between for the 102ED......

I have a Skytee 2, Vixen Porta 2, and a Neewer carbon fibre tripod to cover the whole spectrum with the Porta 2 covering the middle ground, but in practice it turns out for me that the Skytee 2 generally wins at home. I tend to prefer having the rigidity of the Skytee compared to benefitting from the light weight of the Porta 2 or Neewer.

However if it is away from home then the lighter mounts win more often.

[HollyHound]

On 07/12/2020 at 23:37, johninderby said:

Fog moved in as it got dark and showing no signs of shifting.  I’m forgetting what a clear sky looks like. 🙁

Exactly the same for me. Took the dob out to cool for a bit as it was starting to get dark, but pretty much as soon as it go dark, it fogged over 🙁

Although I must say that the time to take the dob out and back in again (OTA and mount separately) is quicker than setting up the AZ Mount Pro and almost as fast as the grab and go scope on a Report tripod... having it stored right next to the back door does help and it's only 20 ft to the centre of the patio 👍

Edited December 9, 2020 by HollyHound

[HollyHound]

On 08/12/2020 at 08:15, RobertI said:

I think i am missing a mid-weight mount in my arsenal  though - the Skytee on a 2” tripod is pretty heavy and the Giro-WR on a photo tripod is too spindly, I need something in between for the 102ED......

As long as the max weight can be kept to 7kg, this may be your answer... ScopeTech Zero on a Berlebach Report. I can quickly carry this out one handed with a C5 or Mak 127 onboard or take the tripod/mount out and then the StellaMira, and be setup ready to go in minutes 👍

[Dantooine]

Nice to hear similar to what I have to do. Trouble for myself is very early bed times when I’m on shift. 

[Luke]

A convenient setup is a wonderful thing. My 10 inch solid tube dob is such low hassle. I woke up early a few weeks ago. Clear outside. Pop the dob out!

Our dob is stored in a metal shed so already cooled down. And it is easy enough to move around.

I also use a giro mount a lot, especially with fracs for solar. Quick and easy. And our 8 inch SCT goes nicely on it.

The SCT does need some cool down time, we store that one indoors, but use is still encouraged on iffy nights as there is so little investment in setup time.

Edited December 13, 2020 by Luke