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13:45[CET] and still waiting for a clearance to get a fix on the sun. Then I can leave the drives running and wait for further clearances. [If any!]
Bright patches keep teasing but don't cross the sun to give me a disk. I have the ZWOASI120 in the Vixen 90mm f/11 for white light. The ASI174 in the 6" H-alpha. Both shutters open for the moment despite the cold, gusty wind.
I need another solar filtered finder on the other side of the instruments for the "afternoon shift." Meridian reversal turns the whole lot "upside down." The 90mm and finder are three feet above my head at this time of year!
14:00 Success! Captured some rushed 500 frame videos of Mercury well onto the disk. I am actively using the exposure slider to keep the sun visible enough to see Mercury. Just like playing slide guitar. Heavy plates of cloud with thinner areas are a real tease. As usual there are lots of blue patches overhead. It is no use monitoring the sunshine on the obs. wall. The sky is often bright enough to light up the dome without exposing the sun's disk.
Registax keeps crashing on alignment! I have had to go over to AS!3 to have anything to show for a couple of hours of frustration. It could all have been so different. Weather permitting!
Before a total overcast I was finally getting convention cells to go with tiny Mercury.
I have more videos on the laptop which need to be sent to the external SSD. Then I can transfer them to the PC for processing in relaxed comfort indoors.
We have some floppy, but quite heavy, knitted, greenhouse shade net. I thought I might drape a length down the observation slit to reduce wind inside the dome. It would need a gap or hole for the telescope to see through. The limited, vertical range of the telescopes could be managed with an overlong length of net being raised and lowered. Tension and retention would be needed at the top and bottom to stop it blowing away. Though it seems quite stable in wind. Unlike conventional cloth. I wonder if it would help with "dome seeing" when it is hot?
14:00 Success! Captured some rushed 500 frame videos of Mercury well onto the disk. I am actively using the exposure slider to keep the sun visible enough to see Mercury. Just like playing slide guitar. Heavy plates of cloud with thinner areas are a real tease. As usual there are lots of blue patches overhead. It is no use monitoring the sunshine on the obs. wall. The sky is often bright enough to light up the dome without exposing the sun's disk.
Registax keeps crashing on alignment! I have had to go over to AS!3 to have anything to show for a couple of hours of frustration. It could all have been so different. Weather permitting!
Before a total overcast I was finally getting convention cells to go with tiny Mercury.
I have more videos on the laptop which need to be sent to the external SSD. Then I can transfer them to the PC for processing in relaxed comfort indoors.
We have some floppy, but quite heavy, knitted, greenhouse shade net. I thought I might drape a length down the observation slit to reduce wind inside the dome. It would need a gap or hole for the telescope to see through. The limited, vertical range of the telescopes could be managed with an overlong length of net being raised and lowered. Tension and retention would be needed at the top and bottom to stop it blowing away. Though it seems quite stable in wind. Unlike conventional cloth. I wonder if it would help with "dome seeing" when it is hot?
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