Eclipse, Nov 2012.

Well, the weather smiled on Snells Beach this morning for the best eclipse we're going to see here for a long, long time. Huge sighs of relief from myself and ValHallen, our gear performed just great, resulting in some excellent shots. 

Montage to come, too much work to do today to put that together!

Full Photo on Flickr

[Val]

Totally agree with Bill up there - a shaky start, just enough clouds to kill the idea of a timelapse, but a glorious day was forthcoming after that with maximum coverage (about 10:24) shining out clear and bright.  The home-made Baader film filters worked a treat, along with Bill's new T2 mount :)  So all in all an awesome result!

I have post-processed some of the shots, with about 6 up on Flickr so far, this is one of my personal favorites, showing the mountains of the moon outlined against the sun!

Baader, Filthy Cameras and CHDK

Just done the first camera tests with the new, home made, Baader solar film on the end of the scope ... encouraging!!!

Hard to focus on the old star, but once you get in there the same rig I use for lunar shots seems to be doing the biz :)

You can check out the 5 test shots here :D

Oh what the hell, here's one to get you started ...

Bill ... where's yours?

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's ridiculous

I got  pissed off last night.  I was sitting in my house, only a single lens to my name, and that a 2-inch beast, no mount and no DSLR.  So I decided to get back to where we once belonged.  1 hour, 2 razor cuts and some swearing later i had re-created the pill mount, and was getting ready for some observing with Bill's awesome 15mm lens on loan.  Batteries were charged, everything was clean and scope was ready to roll.

In short, I ended up staying awake until 5am, shooting from the beach.  The Dob was beautifully easy to transport, ping the springs off, lift it out into the car, and off we went.  The main attraction last night was of course, the moon.  So just to make myself feel better ... I did these.

Slacker Val is Slack

I should post bit of a journey post today, since I have added a couple of tools to the process recently, and a technique or two as well, but it's early, I'm at work and I left my links at home, so here's some pictures instead.

KTHXBAI

Three Tests

So, tonight I was committed to developing a new piece of zero-budget kit.  Using a pill bottle, craft knife and of course, gaffer tape, I believe I may have just created a mount for my camera that will work on any telescope lens.

Myself, and of course my beautiful latino assistant, got the mount cut, filed and then tested on the scope.  The skies cleared, just in time, and the test was a success .. although for one lens I bodged the focus.  Here's the aforementioned piece of kit, the one on the right is the actual mount, the one on the left is the remains :)  It's a pill bottle from the chemist, most recently used for holding antibiotics, now a valued piece of gear :)  Lens goes in one end (the one without gaffer tape) Camera goes in the other.

And here's what it let me do.

6mm Lens

9mm Lens (sorry about focus)

25mm Lens

So!  This is a good thing, oh such a good thing, and so simple! Been staring me in the face all along!
Huge thanks to Fabiano for the assist tongiht (and the company too!).  I will be trying to borrow Bill's 15mm soon :D

w0000t!

Got some shots!!!  Some nice ones!  It was cold (0.6 degrees coldest), the sky was beautiful and the seeing was also awesome!  Bill came over, Rusty and Pip  were here, Jeremy took pics and Eddie came over .. was a good good night!! As well as good shots, had a great time!

So shots live over here:  http://flic.kr/p/8hm9z2, http://flic.kr/p/8hpoTs, http://flic.kr/p/8hm9k6

This is my new fave :D

I would also like to take a second to say thanks to Canon and CHDK.  I got some nice DNGs from my system tonight :D  And thanks to all you guys for coming over and going wow!

Also, completed Bahitov Mask today and it works like a charm!  Instant and EASY focus :D - V important, plus I made it myself too!

Mmmmm 6mm Moon

watch this space for huge moon montage to come (is 12000 x 17500 pixels so far) <-- no, not a typo.

You can see WIP here:

Eclipse

Almost missed it!  That will teach me to go thinking if was Northern Hemisphere only .. so rushed out to grab shots of it (thanks Pip and Rust) and found my IXUS was dirty and scratched and yeah - not happy .. got some, but they suck.

Today is clean camera day and wait for 6mm to turn up :D