25.07.20 Optimism beyond the call of duty!

*

Saturday 25th 58/57F, 0800. Wall to wall cloud with occasional "teaser" brightness. Barely a shadow on the wall of the observatory at the best of times. At full gain and exposure I have found the disk and even a hint of a dark splodge in the form of AR2767. Cloud Bait Observatory is open for cloud watching! Maintain social distancing! Who am I kidding? Only my wife has ever seen the inside of this monument to eternal optimism.

Today's cloud cocktail includes high splodgey cloud from the west. With lower misty cloud from the south. Both layers can be seen streaming across the monitor at right angles to each other. I have the AR centered and the correct exposure and gain for clear sky. Anything else will just turn the active screen white if the cloud suddenly clears.

8.20 Whoops! The sky is turning blue overhead. Very slow moving so it will be just in time for the big plates of southerly stuff to obscure the sun.

SharpCap is set to 800x600, 7ms, 150fps, 45 Gain. The screen is black. I can barely see the disk through the slit. The sky is turning into a mass of "vapour trails." Except there are no planes any more. It used to be normal to have half a dozen trails overhead at any time.

8.30 Still nothing! I wouldn't mind capturing a single video to have something to play with. All I ask for is four seconds of cloud free sky over the sun sometime this morning. The seeing is actually steady and clear i the fleeting moments of visibility. It would make a great image if it was bright enough. I even removed the 2.6x GPC to have a much brighter image. Otherwise it would be full of noise as I stretched the gain just to capture something.

Caught one video! As predicted there was a long chain of cumulus coinciding with the high stuff clearing.

08.43 A sudden but brief clearing. I had fitted the 2x GPC and managed to find focus on maximum gain and exposure. Gain now at 86. I am being much more aggressive with my processing. My images always look weak, soft and washed out online. At least they do compared with my 27" AOC monitor in the observatory.
 

*