As the Sun was just setting, a sucker hole indeed opened up!
I brought out the laptop and fired things up. Since Venus was in the clear, I ran off 1000 frames (mono) of our hellish neighbor. That took about 4 seconds.
20200229 C6R Mono 18_29_16_e11111000_ap4 Venus by Bryan Gabbard, on FlickrAfter that, I slewed to the Moon and commenced capturing panels for a mosaic. I nabbed 4 1000-frame captures. I didn't quite have the cam oriented properly. This is my first mosaic using the C6-R. That all resulted in the bottom "pointy end" of the crescent being missing after stacking, sharpening, and compositing the frames.
Anyway, got supper made and eaten. Stepped back out just as a cloud band was leaving the Moon in the clear. Since it was now full dark, I again brought out the laptop (I'd left the scope/mount set up) and started again on frame captures. This time I nabbed 5 panels. Seeing was worsening now than an hour earlier. Plus, the crap focuser on the C6-R is a bit tough to focus, especially when seeing isn't too good.
Ran into a problem when I stacked, sharpened, and composited. I didn't have enough overlap on the top image of the Moon with the next panel down, and MS ICE refused to stitch them together. Crap! I'd already packed up the mount and scope!
On a whim, I used the top image from my earlier captures and the remaining four from my new set. MS ICE had no trouble there. I was a bit worried that the darker sky on the later captures and a slight change in exposure would look funky, but it seems to be ok. Anyway, here is the result:
20200229 C6R Mono 18_33_26_g4_ap57_stitch 2 by Bryan Gabbard, on FlickrClouds are moving in thickly now and the forecast appears bleak until Thursday.
