Clear Skies!...So whats on sky?

<div class="d4p-bbt-quote-title">Tej wrote:</div>
I seem to have a problem with my Kendrick controller not drawing power from the Tracer after a couple hours elapsed time

This could be because of voltage drop-off, Tej. LiPo batteries often have a higher voltage when initially charged, but this gradually falls off over time, until it rapidly decreases near the point that the battery is depleted. It may be that your Kendrick controller can’t operate when the voltage drops below a certain level? The electronics of certain equipment can’t always cope with handling this drop off. If could be worth using a separate battery for the dew controller in any case, as it does draw a lot of current.

This seems the most likely reason, thanks Mike.  Although, I did not have this problem before, so either my LiPo drop off voltage threshold has lowered over the year or my dew heater controller's voltage demand has increased.  Either way, my solution definitely looks to be buying a separate dedicated LiPo.  Though given your explanation, I'll probably buy another 14Ah battery rather than a smaller one in case I get the same near depletion issue.

It's possible that one of the battery cells is failing, or is depleting faster than the others. Difficult to know... but all batteries degrade over time.

It’s possible that one of the battery cells is failing, or is depleting faster than the others. Difficult to know… but all batteries degrade over time.

Not sure how Tej has been treating his one (which i'm sure he would have been taking very good care of his equipment) but it does say 300+ cycles which is quite a lot before it should start depleting

Lovely Clear skies tonight, everyone.

Good chance to view Catalina comet.  Im hoping for my first success at it.

Lovely Clear skies tonight, everyone. Good chance to view Catalina comet. Im hoping for my first success at it.

Good luck with the comet hunt mate. Wish I could join in on the hunt as well.  Just got back home from work... Exhausted but can't wait to see you folks at the Heath tomorrow /Saturday. Don't start without me and hope the sky stays clear too 🙂

I had my fun with the scope on New Year Night (right after the fireworks) and enjoyed the beautiful Jupiter and it's moons perfectly aligned

Certainly was a good evening. I went down to Romney and got a few images... didn't stay late enough to see the comet though.

All taken with a Canon 60Da with a 50mm lens. No telescope!

Constellation of Orion Side-On - Romney 7 Jan 2016 by Mike Meynell, on Flickr

M31 M33 and NGC752 - Romney 7 Jan 2016 by Mike Meynell, on Flickr

Star Trails Looking North - Romney 7 Jan 2016 by Mike Meynell, on Flickr

Forecast for tonight and Saturday looks rubbish unfortunately. Can't see the Blackheath event going ahead as things stand... but there's still a little time left for the forecast to change.

Wow!  Stunning images Mike,  well done.

Yeah the forecast looks well rubbish but I'm keeping my fingers crossed

Great images Mike. I particularly like the diffraction patterns around the brighter stars.

I particularly like the diffraction patterns around the brighter stars.

Thanks Clive.

This is an optical effect of using the 50mm lens, which has an 8-blade diaphragm. If it had an odd number of blades (e.g. 9) then you'd see double the number of spikes (18 in this case). With an even number, you get as many spikes as there are diaphragm blades.

Always worth knowing if you like this effect.

Obviously, if you stop the lens down further (these were done at f/2.8) to, say f/4, f/8 or f/11, the effect becomes even more pronounced.

Definitely not running the Blackheath observing event this evening (Friday). We will try tomorrow, though it looks doubtful to be honest.

Go/no-go decision by 5pm tomorrow evening (Saturday 9 January).

Thanks for letting us know Mike.

My scope is ready and hopefully if we have clear skies tomorrow,  I'll bring the beasts in to the event

Yawn...just woke up, what time is it....what!?! 11:50am!!  Well, its not often we get such clear, clean, skies so I hope I am justifying my cancelling work hehe. I actually ended up staying at a b&b somewhere on the edge of Kent Downs in Lynsted.  A much better location spot than my previous one and an easier train journey too. The skies were such that I could make out the Milky Way band. There was a street lamp but thankfully hidden behind the house and it switched off at midnight.   I only brought my 80mm refractor this time but I entertained my hosts to Plaides, Orion Nebula, Jupiter, M31, Double Cluster, Bodes nebula (very surprised these two galaxies were so distinguishable on an 80mm) and in addition for my own firsts, the M101 and M51 (again really shocked I can see these galaxies with this refractor).  I really underestimated what a viewing pleasure this refractor can give me in relatively darker skies (i only ever use it for astrophotography).  I do wish I had brought my SCT though to see more of those two new galaxies and especially to see the comet because in the refractor, I could only just make out a tiny faintly green dot.

So I had a fantastic night of stargazing and of course I did some astrophotography on the comet and one of the two new galaxies that cought my interest.  Ill post them up later in the week as I have work to catch up on as well as the Blackheath meetup (if on).

In the meantime, I'm reading up all about diaphragms now as there's just no end to learning from Mike!  Those photos are just wow!  Love how you framed Orion in a new fun perspective.  How you get such a rich starfield from Blackheath is always  amazing.  Its really inspiring.  I assume you used your tracker, how long exposure did you need to get this result?  Im looking up my 50mm f1.4 specs and it seems mine is an 8 diaphragm lens too.  But I was  disappointed with my lens because it had horrid chromatic aberration so never used it anymore but thats probably because I was using it at f1.4, maybe if I stopped down a couple steps, I might have better results?

<div class="d4p-bbt-quote-title">Tej wrote:</div>
Lovely Clear skies tonight, everyone. Good chance to view Catalina comet. Im hoping for my first success at it.

<p style="text-align: left;">Good luck with the comet hunt mate. Wish I could join in on the hunt as well. Just got back home from work… Exhausted but can’t wait to see you folks at the Heath tomorrow /Saturday. Don’t start without me and hope the sky stays clear too I had my fun with the scope on New Year Night (right after the fireworks) and enjoyed the beautiful Jupiter and it’s moons perfectly aligned

</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Well done Ahmed, hope you get much more opportunities to take your awesome system for a spin.  Dont get too addicted to Jupiter (like I did, lol), you have nebulas, globular cluster and galaxies to visit too :)</p>

Yawn…just woke up, what time is it….what!?! 11:50am!! Well, its not often we get such clear, clean, skies so I hope I am justifying my cancelling work hehe. I actually ended up staying at a b&b somewhere on the edge of Kent Downs in Lynsted. A much better location spot than my previous one and an easier train journey too. The skies were such that I could make out the Milky Way band. There was a street lamp but thankfully hidden behind the house and it switched off at midnight. I only brought my 80mm refractor this time but I entertained my hosts to Plaides, Orion Nebula, Jupiter, M31, Double Cluster, Bodes nebula (very surprised these two galaxies were so distinguishable on an 80mm) and in addition for my own firsts, the M101 and M51 (again really shocked I can see these galaxies with this refractor). I really underestimated what a viewing pleasure this refractor can give me in relatively darker skies (i only ever use it for astrophotography). I do wish I had brought my SCT though to see more of those two new galaxies and especially to see the comet because in the refractor, I could only just make out a tiny faintly green dot. So I had a fantastic night of stargazing and of course I did some astrophotography on the comet and one of the two new galaxies that cought my interest. Ill post them up later in the week as I have work to catch up on as well as the Blackheath meetup (if on). In the meantime, I’m reading up all about diaphragms now as there’s just no end to learning from Mike! Those photos are just wow! Love how you framed Orion in a new fun perspective. How you get such a rich starfield from Blackheath is always amazing. Its really inspiring. I assume you used your tracker, how long exposure did you need to get this result? Im looking up my 50mm f1.4 specs and it seems mine is an 8 diaphragm lens too. But I was disappointed with my lens because it had horrid chromatic aberration so never used it anymore but thats probably because I was using it at f1.4, maybe if I stopped down a couple steps, I might have better results?

You brave man! If I had told my missus on a clear night like yesterday "Honey,  i'm going to go out tonight for some stargazing in the middle of nowhere. Don't stay up,  i'll most probably find myself a B&B and will be home in the morning" ...  I tell you what mate,  I best talk to a funeral director before I utter those words lol

Good job on getting the imaging done too.  Do share what you ended up with.

Mate I do seriously want to take my scope out for a spin,  if only we had enough of these clear nights. First time I took my scope out and didn't know what I was doing,  ended up manually pushing my scope to view the moon.  Second time I did everything right but looking through the tomatoe soup trying to find polaris wasn't easy and then after having upgraded the firmware,  took hardly 2 min to polar align.  Only had an issue with second star alignment but then I know I need to know what such particular star looks like lol. Am hoping you guys can help me with if I bring the scope to the event.

Any way,  since I was only going to do visual,  I stuck with 1 star alignment and that was good enough to track my planets and moon.

Long story short,  can't wait for the possible event tomorrow

How you get such a rich starfield from Blackheath is always amazing.

Thanks Tej... but not on this occasion. These images are from my trip down to Romney last night.

I assume you used your tracker, how long exposure did you need to get this result?

Yes, though I just used a basic iOptron Skytracker on this occasion. 30 second exposures x 10 for the Orion and M31 images. The star trails is obviously not tracked(!), and consists of 50 x 30 second exposures.

But I was  disappointed with my lens because it had horrid chromatic aberration so never used it anymore but thats probably because I was using it at f1.4

Yep, always best to stop it down a couple of stops if you can. My f/1.4 is the same at the edge of the field of view - really horrible. In fact, the much cheaper f/1.8 is superior, I suspect because there is not as much glass in the way!

I always stop down the f/1.4 two stops to f/2.8.

Blackheath is off tonight, by the way. Too much rain about, even though we may have some clear patches. We going to try again tomorrow, but forecast looks really poor. It's obviously too much to ask to have a couple of clear nights in a row!