I've never been out so many nights in a row in all my astronomical time and I am enjoying every moment of it.
Since it was looking like nothing but sunny days and clear nights from the 25th onwards I thought I'd only observe to a minimum and try to improve my skills at imaging with the webcams.
Sunday night was nothing more than a learning curve, as it turned out. The skies were nice and clear at Bragan but the horizon was choked in a thick curtain of - high pressure caused - mist.
I used the colour SPC900 camera with the 14" Skywatcher and most of the images are too embarrassing for me to share but I learned a few things and with the laptop battery running low I turned to observing. I never made any notes so I cannot rely on my memory as to what I looked at.
Monday night was a much better night with less of the haze, giving more of the nice scenic look that Bragan has. I had the EQ6 and my 4" Refractor out with me this time. I started imaging the moon with my monochrome SPC900 and finally started to get some good results. My attempts at Mars and Venus were both somewhat embarrassing, even though the views at the eyepiece being nice.
Tuesday night I stayed at home and got the 14" Skywatcher set up in the back garden. Most of my time was getting to learn and know the imaging software a bit better and also to practise focusing techniques as I find it very difficult to know when you are getting it just right.
I started off spending time trying to image double stars - with the idea that I could use some of them for my talk in May - but I probably wasted too much time on this as they were all rather poor.
I then gave Mars another try and was able to find good focus using the 3x barlow that I borrowed of the Chairman. I took a lot of captures and I am rather proud at how the final result turned out.
Satisfied with my efforts I was in the mood to get back to observing and there is nothing I like to do more from my back yard than observe double stars so out came the maps and of I went.
Equipment = 25th 14" Skywatcher, Colour SPC900 cam and laptop
26th EQ6 Pro, 4" Refractor, Monochrome and Colour SPC900 and laptop
27th 14" Skywatcher, Colour SPC900 cam and laptop
Location = 25th Bragan
26th Bragan
27th Home
Start Time for 27th = 20:23
I begun the evening imaging various stars and ending with Mars and moved onto observing by 22:30
Mars - A decent view. The visual view with the 3x barlow wasn't as good as on the laptop screen through the camera but the north polar cap was plain to see and two large surface features were obvious.
54 Leo - A nice double, with both stars of similar colour and the companion being noticeably smaller.
90 Leo - 54 Leo's miniature twin and looking very pretty.
88 Leo - A beautiful par, with a stunning golden yellow main sequence star and smallish pristine secondary star of a brownish colour. A really pleasing sight.
65 Ursa Major - This appeared uninteresting at first, as two white stars of similar size and we seperated but something caught my eye so I increased the power by changing to the 8mm and then saw a very small white star holding tight to 65. A memorable double for me now.
Finish = 11:17
Below are the best results of my imaging. Not much to show for three nights of trying. I am rather pleased of how Mars came out considering that the seeing conditions were terrible. As in my usual fashion I miss a chunk of the moon but still rather happy with the outcome. I hope you enjoy them too.
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