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Please don't moan about poor conditions

MartinB

By MartinB
in The Astro Lounge

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MartinB

MartinB

Posted
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I'm not a happy bunny. Nearly 3 weeks since my observatory was all finished and ready to roll. Since then I've been in nearly every night waiting....trying to grab the odd clear spell. In the meantime images have been flooding into SGL. I've managed 5 focus calibration runs and that's it. Tonight was supposed to be clear but no, the usual 50% cloud making imaging impossible - have been battling against it for the past 3 hours. Rob starts a thread about feeling frustrated but is rattling off subs by the end of it. TJ mentions 4 clear nights last week but it was windy. There will a load of excellent images posted tomorrow with people complaining about poor seeing, high cloud, dew and whatever.

I would just love a windy night with poor seeing and thin high cloud, I just want a reliable view of stars.

Has anyone else been greyed out solidly for the past 3 weeks.

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Whippy

Whippy

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Martin, I feel for you mate. Must be the most frustrating time just sitting there waiting with the new obs just waiting to take in some photons and it's not happening :). Surely you must get at least one clear night over the next couple of days even if it's a shakedown session.

I've got a nice Rioja coming with the rest of the gear for Kelling next week :D....

Tony..

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MartinB

MartinB

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There's a thread in the obsy section somewhere Tim but I'm just too depressed to dig out the link :D

The obsy is built above a brick shed extended from the garage. The dome is a motorised Pulsar 2.7m job. It's lovely, everything is sitting there all tweaked and primed, ready and raring to go.

Here are a couple of pics

post-12794-133877397343_thumb.jpg

post-12794-133877397349_thumb.jpg

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steppenwolf

steppenwolf

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I feel your pain, Martin - it has been a dire year. Listening to the weather this morning and being told that it was a clear night last night (it wasn't here!) and that it would be clear again tonight (we'll see) didn't help either. This morning it is crystal clear and cold in West Sussex and I literally cannot see a single cloud - in fact the only white thing in the sky in the Moon but towards 19.00 this evening, I expect the usual suspects will start to amass ....

Keep everything up and rearing to go so that when the weather breaks - and it will - you are prepared to get out there and go for it.

Have you managed a polar alignment yet? Are you sure none of the cables can snag? Have you checked that no moisture has built up in the light path? Just be ready for the hole in the clouds!

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MikeP

MikeP

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Ditto here just up the road in East Grinstead. If it was clear last night, it must have been in the very early hours.

Frustrating because I want to go to Kelling with some newly acquired, guided subs to use as practice for processing, just in case Kelling is clouded out - not that it will be of course.

Mike

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tmarkuk

tmarkuk

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It's guaranteed to be clear now, at least over Basingstoke, because I broke my Starbook on Friday night so my mount is now out of action for at least a couple of weeks.

Last night I managed to bodge some old slow motion controls from an eq4 on the axis so at least I can get some visual observation done whilst I wait for the repair.

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MartinB

MartinB

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Have you managed a polar alignment yet? Are you sure none of the cables can snag? Have you checked that no moisture has built up in the light path? Just be ready for the hole in the clouds!

Got the polar alignment to within 2 arcmins with the polar scope but haven't had chance to use Maxpoint yet. Motorised focusers only part calibrated. Dome tracking speed not fully tweaked. Cables are hunky dory, no moisture, everything working, software is flakey as usual but I know how to batter it into submission. Filters in place, expsosure sequence set, scopes very close to focus. Maybe tonight...

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Ant

Ant

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That's a seriously nice looking bit of kit now Martin...

I'm starting to wonder if the software issues could be solved by having a second laptop (or in your case a desktop).

Image on one machine and guide on the other... It would cretainly solve any USB bandwidth issue's and conflicts with multiple cameras.

Considering the amount of money that we all spend on kit a few hundred quid wouldn't really be out of the question.

Ant

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