Don't you just love it when..

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Last night looked so promising all afternoon with a clear sky, then that all went wrong about half past five. By seven though it was clearing and as it got dark the clouds moved away. After feeding time I stepped out into the dark and it looked very promising, time to nail the veil. I'd bought an OIII filter the day before Steve dropped the price as I'd found myself passing Stockport Telescope and Binocular shop on the way back from a job.

HEQ5 set up and polar aligned, ST80 slapped on top as an aimer with the SC3 piggybacked with a 135mm lens on and the new filter in between them. Aimed at Vega for focussing. K3CCD started on the lappy with a very dark screen so I moved the camera settings to Max. gain and hit the LX button. Dark screen. Up to 5 seconds, dark screen. Check the LX cable is plugged in (BTDT) and it was, suddenly a bright frame, followed by loads more dark ones. Hmm, loose connection somewhere, so a half hour was wasted moving the cable about trying to locate which bit had to be moved to make it work. Nothing doing there so I took the camera off and opened the plug end that goes into the parallel port. Looked good in there so off to the other end. After I had opened the box, yelped and put the cover straight back on, I realised that this might be an expensive loose wire.

Off to get the DSLR and have a go with that then, SC3 put away to await some daylight. Vega to focus roughly, filter in and then refocus, then let the goto do it's bit. First 30S frame had the rightish area but no detail, second frame at 2 minutes had part of the veil but most was off the bottom of the picture. Moved the 'scope a bit and tried again, blipped the camera and went to fetch another beer (still lovely and warm out at ten PM) while it did its thing. After 90 seconds of exposure, when I came out of the kitchen door, it was cloudy.

Cest't la vie

Hope you guys had more luck!

Captain Chaos

[FLO]

It can be a frustrating hobby

I bought an OIII myself after seeing the difference it makes to the Veil!!!

[SteelRat]

Bought an Astronomic UHC-E for my scope a short while back, arrived the day after my TV32mmPL. Till then I'd never seen the veil - the neighbours MUST've heard the 'yeehaa' when it fell into view!

Last night I put on my hat and grabbed my trusty walking stick - back still playin up - and took the short walk (hobble) to the garage for milk. Looking up I saw the south sky shrowded in that large cloud build up I'd seen on the sat map, and the north sky totally clear. Bought my milk and stepped out of the garage thinking I might get a couple of hours in but immediately got a total soaking instead - I'd misjudged the wind direction. Half way home and getting wetter by the second I saw the wife drive straight past me nice, warm and dry in her car.

'Thanks for that lover' I said when I got in dripping. 'Didn't realise it was you' she replied. Personally I think the hat and stick probably should've given her a clue but... Ces't la vie, eh?

Like they say though, 'A little rain won't hurt - but a lot can kill ya!'

[FLO]

Till then I'd never seen the veil - the neighbours MUST've heard the 'yeehaa' when it fell into view!

That was me last month,

I was observing at the Norman Lockyer observatory, looking for the Veil thru a 12" Newtonian. It was barely visible; Moonglow didn't help. One of the members then put an OIII on the eyepiece and weyhay!! There it was, just like the images but in B/W.

Wonderful 8)

[SteelRat]

Nice one Steve... nice.