September 30, 2008
What an unbelievable weekend! A UK weekend in September that had 3 clear nights (4 if you count Sundays slightly milky sky). That is just unheard of. In fact, I had more clear nights in one weekend than the rest of the appalling UK summer. And the fact that it was star party weekend just makes it astonishing.
Just a couple of astro related images to start with, followed by some other pictures.
M45
OTA: NS8GPS @ f/2 (Hyperstar v3)
Guiding: William Optics ZenithStar 66 SD + DSI-C + PHD
RGB Imaging: QHY8 + MaximDL, 31x300s, IDAS
Stacked: DeepSkyStacker
Post Process: ImagesPlus + PSCS2 + Noel Carboni’s AstroTools
(Click on image for larger version)
M42/M43/NGC1977
OTA: NS8GPS @ f/2 (Hyperstar v3)
Guiding: William Optics ZenithStar 66 SD + DSI-C + PHD
RGB Imaging: QHY8 + MaximDL, 20×60s + 20x300s, IDAS
Stacked: DeepSkyStacker
Post Process: ImagesPlus + PSCS2 + Noel Carboni’s AstroTools
(Click on image for larger version)
And now some other random images from the Kelling Heath Start paty weekend. We were down in the blue field at Kelling, so what you see here is a small part of several hundred pitches, all of them full with astronomers and their kit. And yes, that orange glow in the sky is light pollution 🙁
And click >> HERE << for a large panorama image taken from the middle of our small observing field, helped by Tony and his many clones 🙂
Posted by Steve under Astro | Comments Off on Equinox Star Party, Sept 2008
September 19, 2008
Conditions were pretty dire last night…. sure it was dry and calm, but that big bright moon lit of the hazy skies like it was on fire 🙁 … but it was a clear sky! I`d nearly forgotten what they looked like. I also had a few “issues” that made me lose 2 hours of imaging time. Grrr!!!
I`ve been after the Veil complex since the end of last year, but weather and other things prevented me from being in the right place at the right time. The only tool that was right for the job was the NS8GPS+Hyperstar, which hasnt seen a night sky since April. It was great to get the beast out again, quick and easy polar alignment, and no issues about meridian flips.
Considering the state of the sky, I`m happy I managed to get anything out of my subs at all. I was fighting some horrid gradients, and the noise in the stacked image started to show very early in the processing.
OTA: NS8GPS @ f/2 (Hyperstar v3)
Guiding: William Optics ZenithStar 66 SD + DSI-C + PHD
RGB Imaging: QHY8 + MaximDL, 13nm Ha
Stacked: DeepSkyStacker
Post Process: ImagesPlus + PSCS2 + Noel Carboni’s AstroTools
Posted by Steve under Astro | Comments Off on Fighting the moon to shoot the Veil complex
September 1, 2008
What exactly do I have to sacrifice to the weather gods to make the near 24/7 cloud cover go away? Its just getting silly now. Its been the gloomiest August on record (cloud cover), with some parts of the UK have had the wettest August on record.
Not that the skies havent been clear…. we have have plenty of glorious mornings, and fantastic evenings… but as soon as it gets anywhere near dark, the cloud cover rolls in, and stays there until the sun comes up, at which point it occasionally rolls out again. Since my session on the 2nd August, the nearest thing I have had to a clear night this month was a few hours on Saturday 30th August, with a cloud bank rolling over 2-3 hours before midnight, and leaving at about 3-4am. Not that it would have helped, as I was at a wedding near Stockton-on-Tees, which was 100% cloud cover all night.
The problem is that the pressure graphs for northern europe look like the ones for December, with storm pattern after storm pattern rolling in, one after the other, and passing straight over the UK. Normally they pass north of us, pushed out by the high pressure from the Azores, but it hasnt happened this year. So not only do we have this converyor belt of storm patterns coming in, they are large and swollen with water vapour from the Atlantic, making them overlap with each other. At least in winter we get some break between the storms!
So, here I sit, watching the depressing weather forecasts that always say “clear skies tomorrow” but when we get there, it cloudy again, but promising clear skies tomorrow again. When will this ever end? Over the course of this year, I am down to 1/3rd of my sessions compared to 2007. I think I`ll take up stamp collecting, or knitting, or just standing outside at night, cursing at the weather gods until they reaslise that this is not funny anymore!
Posted by Steve under Astro | Comments Off on Sacrifice to the weather gods?
