SDAS Observing on Friday?

Ah John. Talk about Murphys law!! :laugh: You didn't take the chance and it turned out to be glorious up there!!

I jest of course. Not a washout like the last time either, mind you.

I guess what we had with bands of haze tracking over with clear bands in between was OK for visual observing where you would just follow the clear band before starting over on the opposite side of the sky again and repeating. However I am sure it would be worse than totally overcast from the astrophotograhers perspective where the skies were, "Close but no cigar". ie. tempting transparent areas of sky but not enough time between cloud bands to get any decent exposures.

We didn't get that much observing done but I had the usual laugh and banter and interesting chat with Paul and Michael. Dunno how worthwhile the session was for the other two but I certainly didn't feel I set the scope up for nothing. Got my €50 intelliscope DSC mod working pretty accurately by the last third of the session. Now I know I have the fundamentals of the install done right and any innacuracy remaining is down to the current shifting of the altitude bearings which will be resolved in due course as will the loss of accuracy of the intelliscope caused by the weight of the behemoth 16" Lightbridge sinking the 3 little feet into the mud during the night. Wider shoes(larger surface area) required methinks.

Can't really judge the optics yet as the transparency for the most part wasn't great and the skyglow was bad but I saw the E and possibly the F stars in the trapezium tonight which I haven't seen since this time last year. Think I saw the dust lane in M82 too. Saturn looked decent enough with the 8mm Hyperion @ 225x with the shadow of the rings visible across the disc.

Basically observed just a handful of the usual suspects between cloudbands but tbh I got more value out of the session from the new scope diagnostic aspect of it.

Same time next week weather permitting chaps?? :laugh:

It wasn't a complete waste of time for me either.
I got to test my dew heater and I found out what cord wrap means:)

Michael.

Always good to have a chat, got to see some objects with the 10x50 Pentax binos. We all admired the lovely haze hanging over the city and that delightful searchlight that swept the sky in search of the Luftwaffe.

Still, it was good to get a look at Keith's new scope, a nice piece of kit, whenever he stops tinkering with it.:laugh: It wasn't as much fun watching him take it out of the car like it was with the 12" solid tube and another of lifes little pleasures has gone.

As the boys used their computers to locate objects I asked the question, does anyone star hop anymore?

Well, does anyone?

Paul

Hey! :laugh: I starhopped to M42 and M1 and M51 (Found it BTW but didn't call you guys over because it was barely visible with the haze)

Bummer I missed it:(

I'd bin feeling crap all week and when I suggested to 'er indoors that I was headin' up t'sugarloaf, you can imagine the earful I got.
Just as well I didn't as it turned out by about 3am I was severely out of the picture.: blink: :side: :S