2013-09-14

05:05:00

It’s the first morning I’ve tried my hand at any pre-dawn observing – any legitimate pre-dawn observing anyway. I knew this morning was gonig to be clear and have excellent viewing conditions so I set my alarm (and coffee pot) for 4am.

-I have to say, pre-dawn observing (as opposed to early-evening/nighttime) is superior in every way! The sky (seems) darker, it’s MUCH quieter (traffic, everything); everything seems much more calm and more appropriate for observing – I love it! My hot cup of coffee perfectly offsets the cool chill of the morning, and ‘Alison Krauss’ radio on Pandora compliments the quietness – and the deep sky images – quite well.

-I’m imaging M42 (Orion Nebula) right now and am going to move on to Jupiter real soon – as soon as I finish these darks. I’m imaging M42 with the Canon and will use the webcam for Jupiter.

-Bonus: pre-dawn imaging gives the benefit of getting to watch the beautiful sunrise while I wait for the post-processing and stacking to finish. I can also update the website – basically get everything done in one session.

Quick update: The weather station is complete and installed and working great! It’s automatically logging pressure and temp data and plotting daily graphs. Last this I have to do is have the website automatically update the graphs and have an archive available. The light sensor and webcam are the next additions.


No Comments Comment

No comments yet.


Leave a comment