17.08.2021 Braces and proms.

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Tuesday 17th 60F, mostly overcast and windy with showers and brief glimpses of sunshine.
 

I have to drag out a new 5'x5' [1.5x1.5m] sheet of 15mm Baltic birch ply. So that I can cut out the lower brace laminations. To reinforce the inside of the top of the observation slit inside the dome. The sky keeps going dark without actually raining.

I don't want the sheet to get wet and then go back under its tarpaulin. It will go dark and ugly with black mould. The sheet can't go in the dome with all the slit cross bracing in the way. It takes up too much room in the shed to be able to work on it set up vertically. Though I could draw out the shapes ready for the jigsaw. I must stop procrastinating! 

Two lower brace profiles sawn out and glued together.

Moved onto cloud watching. I didn't want to miss the amazing prom on the NE limb.

12.20 [CET] changed to 2.6x GPC on the camera nose for more scale. 

Softer and loss of contrast. Back to 2x GPC.

13.00 No GPCs on the camera nose for a wider field of view. Disturbed area near the west limb. Not a great capture. PST sweet spot brightness problems!

 

 11.54 An earlier capture.

16.00 Solid cloud! So I marked, cut out and glued another layer of the lower slit brace. That's three now. All clamped up in the B&D workbench + five G-cramps.

17.57 Late imaging session. Thin cloud.

Went on capturing until 18.45 when the trees blocked the sun.

I think I just saw a live movement in the prom. A shaft/beam with a bulb at the base rose rapidly from the limb. The bulb soon shrank. I'll have to go back through my videos when I have finished capturing. There were some rapid changes but the thermal agitation made it difficult to be certain.

It is very frustrating how the transparency slowly improved. As the thermal agitation became steadily more violent. 

19.00 Getting cold. Time to pack up.

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