Really clear night tonight?

scopper

Hey all,

Just wanted to say there seems to be unusually good weather tonight for stargazing in Dublin. I am sure most of you on here have noticed, but just for anyone casually reading it is worth a step outside.

Captain Chaos

Don't know where you are in Dublin but I can only see a handful of the brightest stars and that's it. Last night I could see 4 times the amount at least. There is a blanket of very light thin cloud and low level fog setting in right now.

zenno

It's misty as hell in Co. Dublin. and the night-vision scope is worthless when the moon is out so will wait for complete dark clear crisp skies in the next week hopefully. The conditions are not good at all.

Kersh

i made a late call to go out imaging at 1am!!

The Moon was very bright and sky wasn't great, but i had an itch to do something..Anything!!

So I got some pics of the galaxies M51, M87, M101 using a Skywaycher 80Ed on a HEQ5, just polar aligned, using a Canon 1000D with a Light Pollution Filter (LPR).

Havent processed them yet, but Ill throw up what I get.

Took mostly 60s subs because of the light from the Moon wrecking anything longer, but I had fun scanning the skies with15x70 binoculars while the camera worked away.

Iancar29

Kersh wrote: »

i made a late call to go out imaging at 1am!!

The Moon was very bright and sky wasn't great, but i had an itch to do something..Anything!!

So I got some pics of the galaxies M51, M87, M101 using a Skywaycher 80Ed on a HEQ5, just polar aligned, using a Canon 1000D with a Light Pollution Filter (LPR).

Havent processed them yet, but Ill throw up what I get.

Took mostly 60s subs because of the light from the Moon wrecking anything longer, but I had fun scanning the skies with15x70 binoculars while the camera worked away.

I was out too for awhile and had a problem as per usual with my allignment ... this time that the stars that was coming up for 2 star allignment werent great ones that i even heard of . Usually it would have Sirius and Betelgeuse on it but it didnt? ...


I still havent managed to get a polar allignment better than 20 seconds ...

Kinda puts me off for going out tonight...

Kersh

Can you not choose stars yourself? That alignment is for the goto only.

The Polar alignment is different, its got to do with how accurate you put the pole star in the reticle in the polarscope. Provided the reticle in the polarscope is in the place its supposed to be based on the time and date.

20 seconds is very bad!

I can do 2m 30 at least with good polar alignment.

Iancar29

Kersh wrote: »

Can you not choose stars yourself? That alignment is for the goto only.

The Polar alignment is different, its got to do with how accurate you put the pole star in the reticle in the polarscope. Provided the reticle in the polarscope is in the place its supposed to be based on the time and date.

20 seconds is very bad!

I can do 2m 30 at least with good polar alignment.

When it comes up to 2 star allignment , there would usually be just 20 or so to choose from .

I have a polar scope in my mount too , but when i look through it , the reticule is very dim . So i never know how accurate i am . Dunno about the positions now either.

I guess most of my errors are due to the fact i havent been shown how to use it properly yet as i was only going by the basic manual and youtube videos.


#Noob . :rolleyes:
.

Kersh

Shine a red torch in the top, that will illuminate it, and get an app called PolarFinderPro. That'll help get Polaris' position.

If you get Polaris position, and get it into the circle in the polarscope, using the azimuth and altitude screws, you will be laughing!!

Give me a call this evening, and Ill talk you through it.

Iancar29

Thanks for the tips Kersh , shall download that app now

I just went out the back with just the tripod as couldnt get a lift anywhere to bring my tracking mount . Wouldnt of been great with the moon anyways sure.

ThatDrGuy

Out right now. Moon is too bright but scope is set up so might have a peek at the planets. Seeing isn't great even without the moon. Been ages since I had the set up out so its good to just get in practice again!

ZeRoY

Skies are looking good for tonight (9pm-1am) also! Full moon it is then!

zenno

It was lovely and clear a while ago, so I plugged in the night-vision to the pc and a minute later, yes, the cloud comes again :eek:. I was trying to get the settings right but as usual, cloud.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx_MSs9ciAU