TheSkySearchers

Short, but good, thanks. Got a few clusters in:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=16234

Should be mostly clear tonight, but the current temp is 13* F, going down to 1* F with a ridiculous windchill, so I'll either be watching Netflix or observing through my dining room window. These are the times when I regret turning down a job offer in Florida a few years back.

pakarinen wrote: ↑Fri Feb 05, 2021 8:20 pm Should be mostly clear tonight, but the current temp is 13* F, going down to 1* F with a ridiculous windchill.....

That's nuts!

I got set up tonight, caught some photons then got clouded out! File under practice run!

Regards

Graeme

Graeme1858 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 05, 2021 10:47 pm That's nuts!

Currently -1* F. :Boo:

Anyway, did a little lunar observing from the dining room this morning. Caught Helicon's namesake on the terminator.

Tonight’s the first full clear night we have had in a long time. Last week I got my guiding all sorted out, thank goodness. So tonight I am getting my first real test with my new setup from Christmas. My target is the horse head and the flame nebula. I have about three hours on it now. Just finished my meridian flip and getting another 1-2 hours on it before it falls behind a tree that I have a love/hate relationship with.
I’ll see what I end up with tomorrow.
Kerry

Cloudy here tonight but clearing around dawn. I'm headed south into the Mojave National Preserve tomorrow afternoon, hoping to add a couple more hours of OIII data and then 3 hours of SII data to my Thor's Helmet image that's floating around here somewhere.
My gameplan for tomorrow:
Be on-site and set up by 16:00 to give the scope time to acclimate.
Polar alignment and flats complete by 18:00
Begin OIII data on NGC2359 at 18:30
Complete OIII by 20:45, Start SII by 21:00
Complete SII by 00:30
Collect an additional 15 minutes per RGB channel by 01:30

By 01:00 M13 should be around 20° above the horizon in the northeast and I'll shoot 1 hr each RGB on it. That should conclude my evening.

Wish me luck!

Kerry C. wrote: ↑Wed Feb 10, 2021 6:29 am Tonight’s the first full clear night we have had in a long time. Last week I got my guiding all sorted out, thank goodness. So tonight I am getting my first real test with my new setup from Christmas. My target is the horse head and the flame nebula. I have about three hours on it now. Just finished my meridian flip and getting another 1-2 hours on it before it falls behind a tree that I have a love/hate relationship with.
I’ll see what I end up with tomorrow.
Kerry

Did your meridian flip go well?

AstroBee wrote: ↑Wed Feb 10, 2021 7:04 am Cloudy here tonight but clearing around dawn. I'm headed south into the Mojave National Preserve tomorrow afternoon, hoping to add a couple more hours of OIII data and then 3 hours of SII data to my Thor's Helmet image that's floating around here somewhere.
My gameplan for tomorrow:
Be on-site and set up by 16:00 to give the scope time to acclimate.
Polar alignment and flats complete by 18:00
Begin OIII data on NGC2359 at 18:30
Complete OIII by 20:45, Start SII by 21:00
Complete SII by 00:30
Collect an additional 15 minutes per RGB channel by 01:30

By 01:00 M13 should be around 20° above the horizon in the northeast and I'll shoot 1 hr each RGB on it. That should conclude my evening.

Wish me luck!

Hope it goes well Greg.

We had a couple hours of clear so I went for the February Challenge. I knocked out 10 x NGC2420, slewed to NGC2392 and the clouds came over!

Looks like I'm going to grab some flats and pack up!

Regards

Graeme

Went back out and the clouds had vanished! So I set up for NGC2392, got 1 x 120 sec frame and back came the clouds! Grabbed some flats and packed up!

Friday looks half decent....

My plans have changed just a bit. Still going after the same data on Thor's Helmet but I'm going to work on an animated timelapse of (4) Vista and try to get about 4 hours of data on the Leo Triplet since it's nearby.

Graeme1858 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 10, 2021 9:39 pm

Kerry C. wrote: ↑Wed Feb 10, 2021 6:29 am Tonight’s the first full clear night we have had in a long time. Last week I got my guiding all sorted out, thank goodness. So tonight I am getting my first real test with my new setup from Christmas. My target is the horse head and the flame nebula. I have about three hours on it now. Just finished my meridian flip and getting another 1-2 hours on it before it falls behind a tree that I have a love/hate relationship with.
I’ll see what I end up with tomorrow.
Kerry

Did your meridian flip go well?


Graeme

Graeme,
I just did the flip manually. I might try it with APT next time.
This was the first real chance to image with the ASI294MC Pro. Up until now I have only used my DSLR. I’m trying different filters to see what difference they make. All in all it was a great learning experience.
Kerry

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a telescope, as a noun, is defined as thus:

1: a usually tubular optical instrument for viewing distant objects by means of the refraction of light rays through a lens or the reflection of light rays by a concave mirror.

2: any of various tubular magnifying optical instruments.

According to Thefatkitty dictionary, a telescope, as a noun, is defined as thus:

1: a usually tubular optical instrument for viewing distant objects by means of the refraction of light rays through a lens or the reflection of light rays by a concave mirror, oftentimes seen sitting in a room collecting dust due to abhorrent weather conditions.


So that's where I'm at; it's either the cold or the haze. Hope you get some imaging time in Graeme!

All the best,

Thefatkitty wrote: ↑Wed Feb 10, 2021 10:36 pm So that's where I'm at; it's either the cold or the haze. Hope you get some imaging time in Graeme!

All the best,

How's spring time in Ontario? Will your odds improve?

I managed a couple of hours before the clouds returned along with snow flurries!

I've gotten in 3 sessions since this thread was started, but have yet to write-up a report on them. Did the carbon star challenge and picked up one of those in Virgo, scanned the Virgo Cluster, spent some time in Leo and Ursa Major as well. The owl nebula and the surfboard galaxy showed up well. Since a couple of the sessions were between 5am and 6am the LP was a little reduced and the skies steady. Looks like I might get an evening session in a few hours, so looking forward to that. Good luck Greg with your trip.

Graeme1858 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 10, 2021 10:48 pm

Thefatkitty wrote: ↑Wed Feb 10, 2021 10:36 pm So that's where I'm at; it's either the cold or the haze. Hope you get some imaging time in Graeme!

All the best,

How's spring time in Ontario? Will your odds improve?

I managed a couple of hours before the clouds returned along with snow flurries!

Well Graeme, springtime here usually mean south to north winds bring up all the moisture from Lake Ontario Fall and winter is usually my best time. Right now it's crystal clear outside, but -29C... Yeah, not tonight

Hope your night is better

the sky is beautiful here tonight.
but at -25 Celsius no thanks.

I completely missed this dark cycle due to cold rain and wind. I’ve had my observing list ready for a few weeks and hopefully I’ll get a chance to use it soon but for now I’m spending most of my time cleaning eyepieces and scopes and reading! Good luck to everyone with clear skies!

Graeme1858 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 23, 2021 10:13 pm

Greenman wrote: ↑Sat Jan 23, 2021 9:58 pm Yep out, and trying to remember how to do this; the moon was a simple target...

I was thinking of the horse-head too, but I had some issues with getting a good enough alignment.

It takes a bit of head scratching when it's been a while! Did you get some good Lunar shots?

I'm packed up now, my alarm will be going off at 05:50 tomorrow!

Bit late to the party on this one, yes I got a good lunar shot, impressed with the field of view and contrast.

Graeme1858 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 23, 2021 8:18 pm Still having the craic though!

I just realized how that's pronounced. In the US, the rock form of cocaine is often referred to as crack, so probably best that I not add that to my conversational vocabulary here.

I just checked my log book - last time out was January 21st - cut short by clouds. Last full night was January 7th. So I'm now in full blown withdrawal mode with no end of clouds in sight for the next week. I will have missed a significant number of targets to photograph. I've had to cancel several events - including daytime because of clouds. And I haven't bought anything lately. And daylight "saving" time is rapidly creeping up on us. AAARRRGGGHHHH!

pakarinen wrote: ↑Sat Feb 13, 2021 1:13 pm

Graeme1858 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 23, 2021 8:18 pm Still having the craic though!

I just realized how that's pronounced. In the US, the rock form of cocaine is often referred to as crack, so probably best that I not add that to my conversational vocabulary here.

It's an Irish word! But it's used a lot in England. It just means doing something that's fun or enjoyable or exciting or a laugh.

I expect you'll be ok using it in the US as long as you say you're going to have the craic, not you're going to have some crack!

Doing a bit of testing to see if the gradients that I got with the HH and Rosette are related to the target. I started with the Beehive cluster, then the Skull and Bones nebula, the Seagull nebula, and now M67. Not enough time for any of the targets but let's see if I get gradients, and revisit them later. Now that I've finally started using plate solving everything is much quicker and easier.