A long-overdue technology update....

[toprob]

It's become very apparent this year that what used to be the steady ramping up of technology to solve our problems has now turned into a quick release of buggy rubbish, then moving on to the next half-arsed project. And I do include MSFS here, although I still love it, sometimes it just doesn't work for a couple of days, and with every update we get issues which need to be solved in the next update. SU4 is meant to be finished next week, and it does appear to be mostly bug-free, so good luck....

This week I checked when my warrant was due, and it was today, so I quickly made an appointment for Friday. However the old lady who lives downstairs* reminded me that I'd promised she could use my car to take her dog to the vet, so I clicked the handy 'reschedule' button on the email. Nothing happened. A quick phone call assured me that the system is new, and nobody knew how to change an appointment. So the old lady had to make other arrangements.

*The old lady downstairs -- I've mentioned her before, in some stress-fueled posts about my ex and her husband moving in here for a few months. Well, that ended, and things got back to normal, but six months ago they separated, and she now lives in the flat downstairs. Permanently. Ask me how I feel about that. No, better not. She does help with the grandkids, which is a blessing for an old bloke. Luckily no issues with the warrant, so that's great.

I've kept on spending more money on astro stuff, I think I'm up to about $8000. However I didn't realise how crap the weather was this time of the year, and only saw 2 clear nights in November, and none so far in December. Here's the next week's likely weather -- this is a traffic light system, red is too cloudy, orange is maybe ok, and green is good. Wow, looks like some green on Wednesday night, but that could easily change. Note that we get about 4 hours of astro darkness (the black part of the colour band) now, so I can't pass this up.



I do need to skip Sunday and Tuesday nights, because I take care of the grandkids early next morning, and I'm too old to not get my 6 hours at least. Oh yeah, there's another grandkid in the house, a girl, 6 months old now. I was thinking I'd get a break when I'm seventy next year, when the lad goes to school, but no, it'll be another 5 years at least. I do think that's it, though, touch wood. Speaking of school, they've decided on Rudolf Steiner here in Wellington, which is great -- all my kids went to Steiner in Christchurch, and it turned out great.

Telescopes seem to have taken over my room, as this week I bought a new mount. I mean, look at all those wires, I'll be lucky if I don't trip and break a hip.

[Splitpin]

Nice set up AstroRob.....some serious hardware on display.
Really looking forward to you next instalment

[deeknow]

Cool gear of course .. and also looking FWD to some future mind-bending space shots .. but I LOVE that traffic-light calendar the most !!!

[toprob]

.. but I LOVE that traffic-light calendar the most !!!

Today shows green all the way through to 6am! I did say I have to skip Sunday and Tuesday nights, as I'm up at 6:30 the next morning to take care of the kids. However in an ideal world, I could set the scope for 300x 1 minute shots and leave it overnight.

Living in a less that ideal world, though, that is not gonna happen. On Sunday night I managed two hours for the very first time with my new mount. The first hour was spent trying to find a star to focus on. Then I got it aligned, but couldn't get it to track the sky, or guide using the autoguider. Resisted the urge to throw the rig off the deck, and packed up.

Reading the manual in bed, I realised that I'd set the scope up facing the wrong way, North instead of South. The old mount faced North to align, but this is very different. Tonight I'll try it the other way around. Crossed-fingers emoji.

[toprob]

I had Nano Banana make me this 'crossed-fingers' emoji -- currently taking 100 x 1 minute shots of the Horsehead Nebula! Very first time with the guiding camera actually working, very first exposure over 25 seconds, the new mount might have worked out.

[Charl]

OMG a Real Life Flux Capacitor!

[Splitpin]

[toprob]

Ok, my 100 photos of the first target were pin-sharp and rock steady, the only problem was that they didn't show the actual target I wanted. I spent two nights trying to get it to point in the right direction, without success. Tonight I dragged my old PC out onto the deck and connected the mount to it, and finally it's working! Still some bugs to iron out, though, but progress is being made.
I can't keep using the PC, so I'll pick up and old second-hand laptop. I actually sold my old alignment camera to pay for a laptop, but the guy who bought it can't get it to work. I've told him I'll buy it back if it doesn't work out, and he's popping around over the weekend to make sure it still works for me. If so, he may keep it, but I doubt it.
All these issues have one thing in common, the US company Celestron which makes all this gear. It shouldn't have to be this complicated.

[cowpatz]

Rob will you be all "dialed in" for the 3I/ATLAS asteroid passage (is it the 19th Dec that it is at it's closest point to Earth?)
We will be expecting some impressive images!

[toprob]

I'll certainly try if it's clear enough, but don't expect much -- I've tried to photograph a comet before, but I only know how to track the stars, and comets tend to move against the starfield. So my comet ended up as a fuzzy sausage. 3I/ATLAS is very faint compared to that one, too.
I have added it to the software I use to control the scope, so I have a couple of days to figure out some stuff!
Weather not looking promising, though...

[toprob]

Well, December was a total write-off weather-wise. January isn't shaping up all that great either, although I am coming around to the idea of astrophotography being a seasonal thing -- at the moment we're getting less that 5 hours of darkness, so even if the sky was clear, I can't really track any target for long enough to get a good shot. 6 hours would be ok, 8 is good.
New Years Eve was great here, the family were down in the garden with the fire going, and the moon was right there looking great, so my son asked if I could set up the scope to look at the moon. I didn't do a proper alignment, not enough stars, but close enough to track things. Getting close to midnight the lower cloud cleared and there was Jupiter, which is almost at its brightest and closest, with opposition in a few days. Looking at Jupiter with the scope just set up for visual was a real revelation. I'd seen Jupiter before, but not the bands of cloud which were perfectly visible, and five of the Jovian moons were there. The family were all blown away. I checked online to see when the Great Red Spot would be visible (Jupiter has a 10-hour day, so it rotates very, very fast) and it was only an hour away, so I checked back later and it was just coming into view. I was just about to call to my son that he should come and see, when I accidentally pulled the plug. Since re-aligning is tricky, and I was quite drunk and tired, I packed up instead.

[Charl]

and I was quite drunk and tired, I packed up instead.

This is something that only comes with years of practice, you have acquired Wisdom
Jupiter seemed especially bright the last few times that I happened to look up, must've been spectacular with a decent scope.

[cowpatz]

If ever you get the chance, listen to an audio book by Bill Bryson called “A short history of nearly everything”.
The book starts with the creation of the universe and our place in it. Absolutely facinating. Some of the numbers are beyond comprehension.
It is available on Spotify.

[deeknow]

If ever you get the chance, listen to an audio book by Bill Bryson called “A short history of nearly everything”.

It's a cracker aye CP .. he crammed a LOT into that .. good 101 on a lot of subjects, have the physical book (remember those :-) if anyone wants me to post it to em

[Charl]

I always read this kind of stuff on iPad or similar, you get to Google interesting things straight out of the text!
Bill Bryson takes me a year to read in this way

[cowpatz]

I’m not usually an audio book person, but it certainly helped pass the time when I was doing a major clean of the flat after the kids had finally moved out. Somehow it made the experience more immersive than just reading.