I Had a Short Night Too!
Thread: I Had a Short Night Too!
Darkly overcast all day long. I thought it was going to rain a few times, but nary a drop fell that I could see or feel. After getting home from work and getting chores done and tending to a sick child (he is 16, so not much tending required), I popped out back to see how the sky looked.
Some puffball clouds remaining, but a nice crescent Moon in the southwest over the roof of the two-story monstrosity beside my house.
The sky was a very pale blue and did not promise any decent obersving, so I brought out the AVX and C6-R to hopefully nab a few lunar captures before any clouds discovered me and crashed the party.
Twilight was just getting started when I checked again about 1930 hrs. I decided to pop the ZWO into the focuser of the frac and grab my lunar frames. While setting that up, I could hear my neighbor to my north and his small son playing catch with a baseball in their back yard. Terry (dad) and Cooper (son) finally came over to see what I was up to. I was just getting the Moon centered in SharpCap on my laptop.
I explained how I was making short video files of the Moon to stack the best frames and sharpen the images to make a decent picture. They watched a bit, asked a few questions about various lunar features that were visible. I always get a kick out of watching peoples faces as I begin talking. They are either rapt and attention and really listening, or their eyes glaze over and they fight the urge to run. Poor Terry, I'm afraid, was in the latter category. I will give him points for toughing it out though.
He finally decided it was bath time for Cooper and off they went. I thanked them for stopping by.
I started at the bottom of the crescent and worked my way up along the terminator. Straight up, no barlow, just scope and cam. For us visual folk, this is a rough equivalent of about 240×. Each are the result of 1000 frames of 16-bit SER file, the best 10% stacked via AutoStakkert!2, Registax 6 for wavelets, and Photoshop for trimming the rinds off (cropping slightly).
After I made it up to the top of the crescent, I pulled the ZWO out and attached a 1.25" 2× barlow and worked my way back down.
After that was done, I carried my laptop back inside. Back out at the scope, the sky was actually looking rather decent. I contemplated bringing out the 12" for another go at Pluto, but something told me to not bother as the decent sky I was percieving was merely a farce and would not hold.
I went back inside to begin cranking my images through the wringer.
Stepping back out at almost 2100 hrs., I found that the Dew Monster had showed up and was sneezing all over everthing and the sky had souped over considerable. Mmm hmm. That's what I figured.
So I broke my gear down and put things away. Not mad, just par for the course this year.
That's what I got done on this night. Let's see if anything happens tomorrow. I'm not counting on it.
Peace and clear skies, friends.
jrkirkham, j.gardavsky, terrynak and 21 others like this.
Re: I Had a Short Night Too!
So when are you and Mark going to collaborate on the Lunar Atlas?
kingclinton, bladekeeper, SpyderwerX and 2 others like this.
Hope tomorrow pans out better later in the evening!
Mark will have to wait until I can catch up to his quality!
Gotta get a big ol' frac! I really enjoy that scope.
These are very fine images Sir.
There is a subtlety to the finish.
This is such an pleasing set of images Bryan.
I do not think there are any better for aesthetic quality and visual detail. The light was perfect!
This is quite nice. It looks like you are in love with the moon and you wanted to capture her with your lens.
I'm impressed how you get nice images with the lousy sky.
What happened to all our galaxies, man? We watch the Moon, some doubles... asteroids... I wanted to revisit at least a few easy galaxies last night... sucky sky.. didn't even bother. But aI am nearing 1000 double stars. :P But it's like like driving with 40 mph. It gets you there, but the thrill is not really there.
SkyWatcher Pyrex dob8, Swan 25mm, 10mm Luminos, OIII filter (thanks, Bryan!
SkyWatcher Heritage 130mm, eyepieces 25mm, 15mm, 10mm, 10 mm BCO, 6mm, barlow 2x, M&SG Filter. Engage!
You and Mark could really put together a fine atlas!
Really great images. I aTm amazed how you can create these images in what seems like no time!
Thanks for posting your evening and fine images. You really ought to consider a lunar portfolio.
I am surprised they came out as ok as they did. The seeing was quite turbulent, and when I put the barlow in I just gave the focuser a quick twist and did not spend much time fine tuning it.
Global warming. This is the new normal, and it will only get worse.
Hey, 40 mph can be exciting too, especially in the forest!