Reet, all set for tonight

[Keithp]

Good evening all,

Scopes out, batteries on charge. The cloud, according to the Met is due to move off east, its 20:00 and the sun's trying to poke through....I'm hopeful...

Got the IR remote for the camera so tonight is going to be the first serious attempt at a DSO with 30+ seconds exposure. Tested all the kit and it works..sooo

Fingers crossed:hello2:

I'll put the first one up here.

I'm on MSN if anyone's out there. PM me if you want to set up with MSM.

Regards

All

Keithp

[adamsp123]

I am hoping it will be clear here tonight but I am not going to spook the clear skies away, I will set up later.

[AstroNinja]

s'posed to be clear for me too, so far so good ....

[Leegsi]

Loads of clouds here

Hope they disappear so I can see Jupiter.

[Keithp]

Well the cloud's gone...looking good and cookin on gas:hello2:

09:10 local in south somerset and gettin ready...heh heh here we go!

[Keithp]

Polar aligned, crack on if I did it right,..all set. Trying to sort out where to go tonight. It's still twilight and no stars visible by the naked eye...

Fired up sky6 and having a look around.

yo excited or what!

[Keithp]

well I just did a 3 minute exposure...and no star trails...next one is five m:hello2:inutes...taking bets on star trails....

It's amazing the detail being picked up..total newbie here

wish the moon would either show itself or go away!

[Keithp]

got me a couple of 5 min exposures...and no star trails. Shame M31 is not quite high enough yet, maybe give it another hour and it might be where I can see it.

How long do you need to get anything out of orions belt, the third lower star that is, it's nicely in position at the moment. Just got all the batteries on charge again.. back in an hour

[narrowbandpaul]

orion? are you in the UK?

[Keithp]

yep, South Somerset/North Dorset... your question suggests I'm identifying something incorrectly... is orions belt not due south at the moment? I got three stars top right to bottom left in a diagonal...ah just realised... I boobed:o

not what I think I'm looking at it's Altair in the middle, whoops

:iamwithstupid:total newbie shootin anything that don't move

[narrowbandpaul]

i was questioning my sanity....

yup its altair, in aquila. a few dark nebs in there.....

why not NGC7000 just left of deneb, or shoot the area around gamma cyg, or the veil neb. you could do m27....

remember the golden rule. Go as long as you can without trailing, and get as many subframes as you can. The more the merrier. The processing will be easier, and a lot more detail will pop out once stacked.

there are just a ton of objects in cygnus.

good luck

paul

[Keithp]

NGC7000, that's top left of the four in the pattern above me

sort of like

.

. . .

if the formatting will allow it

Moderators. why won't the page show none alpha characters spaced out ?

[Keithp]

Morning All,

Well examining the pictures from last night in the cold light of day, so to speak, and...

Hmmmm, that polar alignment wasn't so hot after all:( and I may be experiencing, on some shots anyway, the effects of the mirror lock still vibrating the setup when shooting.

I'm using the RC5 remote which works very well but I may need to resort to a peice of card covering the tube at the start and end of a shot. Oh well plenty to experiment with. Anybody else experience that problem (if it is being caused by the mirror), it has a 2 second delay but I'm beginning to think it needs longer.

Nice night though up until about 02:00, shame about the dew though, all that rain, load of moisture in the air.

Regards

All

[George]

Yes the cold front past over here around 11.30 incredibly dark and clear skies here until 1am then cloud rolled in again

Was nice while it lasted, I didn't image but played with plate solving and got a couple of shots of Jupiter with the QHY5.

[Psychobilly]

Got a whole night in... playing about with a relatively broad Ha filter... was tempted by Jupiter about 2 am when it popped out in a gap between the trees.. looks like I could get 30 mins on it... so may get to give it a go with the DMK after all next opportunity...

Couple of nice meteors as well one around 2:04 is was the best quite a long trail from below right of Cassiopea

Peter..

[George]

Couple of nice meteors as well one around 2:04 is was the best quite a long trail from below right of Cassiopea

Peter..

Perseid probably, rates will start ramping up now until the main show.

[adamsp123]

Cleared last night, so I set up, next door had left their blasted back light on again, then guiding failure on calibration twice, found I had not plugged the ST4 cable into the starbook doh!! Got everything hunky dory, got a few subs then the clouds rolled in at about 1 am just after all the street lamps go off and it is nice and dark.

Bit miffed with the clouds but what else should I expect...NW winds over Snowdon send clouds my way.