[AZ-Observing] Clearing now at Antennas good night last night

  • From: stevecoe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • To: SMTP <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 13:07:30 -0700

Howdy all;

I had an excellent night at the Antennas site, then some clouds movec 
in around 2 AM.  I covered the scope and came back out around 4 AM.  I 
got a peek at Comet Lovejoy in the small binoculars.  It was not much 
between the cloud layers to the NE.

Right now it is clearing from the west, I see a cloud layer over 
Phoenix that is clearing off out here.  But, my weather source 
(Accuweather) shows some clouds over LA that may be moving in later this 
evening, we shall see.  I will post again this afternoon if it changes.  
I would say that the sky is 50% clear right now.

I got lots of fine shots last night.  The new CGEM mount is working 
very well and I am very close to right on the North Pole.  I shot many 3 
minute exposures where I did not need to make any corrections at all 
during the shot.  I am using a 12mm double cross-hair eyepiece (thanks 
AJ) in the ED80 guidescope.

I shot jpeg images just for testing and I am happy with the test shots. 
As always I did a few "OOPS" shots, they do make you stay awake.  But 
nothing serious and I am only shooting for 5 minutes at the longest, so 
it is not like I am wasting lots of time.

The refurb Canon T2i camera is doing a terrific job, lots of stars and 
detail in a variety of objects.  I think my testing will be done soon 
and I will start shooting RAW images that I can use to stack some images 
and get better contrast.  I can join the "real" astroimagers.

Clear skies to us all;
Steve Coe
--
See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please 
send personal replies to the author, not the list.

Other related posts: