Observing tonight?

[jlmanatee]

Any chance of Eagle Bluff Saturday night?

[Mike C:\]

I would be up for Eagle Bluff tonight. Does anyone know if its open for us? If not I would be up for Keller.

[jlmanatee]

Even though the Moon is almost full, I'm going to head to Keller tonight to do some narrow band imaging.

[fealeybob14]

A bit distorted and probably a bit out of focus but here's a recent view of Venus.  The "half moon" phase I think is accurate.  Freezing fingers prevented me from trying to get a better shot!

[johnattewell]

Way to go!  Even though there temperature is so cold, I've noticed that the relative humidity has been very high so that could account for most of the "fuzz" around the image.  Besides the atmospheric reflection, the high relative humidity could also cause some problems with condensation on the lens/mirror - once it's on the equipment it takes a really long time to evaporate - which was probably long after your "frozen fingers!"

[fealeybob14]

Agree and thanks John. I tried Venus again on Jan 18th (or the 17th) this time using eyepiece projection and the Canon Rebel T5.  This camera is supported by the digiCamControl program which allows a live view and good exposure/ISO controls.  Even so the result was only fair.  Some chromatic aberration and fuzziness was present on images.  The attached was enhanced in Photoshop Elements.  The crescent shape of Venus is now evident.  Over next 2 months Venus will be very interesting with a rapidly enlarging diameter and falling % illumination.
 

[fealeybob14]

Another Venus attempt tonight (2/3/2017).  Skies clear and cold but fair amount of turbulence.  Experimented with ISO and exposure times (best was ISO 200 at 1/20 sec).  Best image below, strongly enhanced in Photoshop Elements to sharpen and rotated 180 degrees.

[Josef Ch]

Beautiful picture! wow! Thanks Bob!

[fealeybob14]

Another moon pix taken at sunset on 2/5/2017.  Same setup as Morning Moon above.  Not sure the moon's colors are correct but it looked a little better in color than with the color removed.

[ellenvega]

Eagle Bluff is available tonight! But not Saturday night. Some of us are planning on being there!

Moonrise after midnight, temps in low 50's and then 40's throughout the evening. 

[Mike C:\]

I can be there! Got to take advantage of the weather while I can!

[drneilmb]

Greetings from Decorah, Iowa. I'm a fairly new telescope nut and I wonder if you will be doing any observing at Eagle Bluff this weekend as listed on the schedule on your web page? If so, I will try to drive up to join you.

I built a 4.5" f8 reflector last month and I've been having so much fun that I'd love to share the experience with others.

-Neil

[ellenvega]

Hi Neil and welcome!  Unfortunetly, we are under a blizzard warning tomorrow and part of Saturday so nothing going on this weekend.  Keep an eye on this forum though, as we get closer to spring we'll hopefully have some nice weather Dark Sky weekends.

[drneilmb]

Thanks for the reply and stay safe and warm everyone.

[fealeybob14]

It's not much warmer tonight but at least there's no snow in the forecast!  Nice western sky with the moon and Venus well placed for observing.  The image below combines both but in reality they were not that close together.  Venus is a bit distorted and the moon a bit overexposed (forgot the moon filter) but both presented interesting targets for the camera.