Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on Jul 27, 2013 19:45:46 GMT -6
A couple of hours in Between cloud masses with the C102mm
27 July 2013
27 July 2013
Although sleepy, I noticed that around 1am, that my urban sky cleared and was deep - with good transparency. So I set up the C102mm Refractor on the CG-5 mount and had some nice scope time before the next wave of patchy clouds rolled in. The C11 was right next to the refractor, but it's much faster to set-up with the C102. Setting up just outside of the garage, the temps were refreshingly cool and comfortable.
I targeted the waning Moon first, before I lost it in my jungle of trees...
Andromeda cleared the utility lines and managed to snag 15 seconds of distant diffused light...
Exploring the Cassiopeia region, the Double cluster looked mighty nice...
Staying in the area, the E.T. cluster is alot smaller in the 102mm than in the C11, but not any less pretty...
Picking out the stars of Casse...
By 4am, the clouds were rolling in from the northwest and that was that. I used the Light Pollution filter and Tungsten white balance setting to bring out various attributes of the objects. Next time, I will use the CKDSK hack on the Canon Powershot S3 to push more exposure time and keep it at a low ISO and push the noise down.