The Cheshire Astronomer

You have to be, very thick skinned, to be an amateur astronomer in this country. I haven't done any visual astronomy or astro imaging, since the beginning of the month. We had a few clear spells at the end of  January, and into early February. But since that time. I have not seen a totally cloud free sky. This evening was supposed to have been, our society observing, session on Teggs Nose. That has been called off, or I should say rained off. Because of the wind and rain. It's driving me mad. Strom Doris, whizzed by last week. Sadly she took one young victim's life, who was in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Very sad indeed. Thankfully. Where I work and live. We had no damage. Although there were, at times. When I wondered. Should be working under all that glass at Stocks Lane. The environmental computer, recorded  a gust of 56 mph at one point. I hope the Lovell telescope wasn't damaged during the storms! On Wednesday we move into Meteorological Spring.

It has hasn't it! I have not published anything since 2013. It isn't because I have lost interest. Far from it. I just got a little lazy, and to tell you the truth. I'd forgotten I had a blog running. So- What have I been doing. Since 2013. I now have a pier in my garden. with the Losmandy G11, permanently attached. This is of cause covered over, with a Cygnus telescope cover. I then kitted out my shed with electricity and computer hardware and two monitors. This is my observatory-command center. That is "The Whirlpool Observatory" where the mount and cameras are controlled from. I also have new kit. I bought a S/H Williams Optics  Megrez  EDT 80, and fitted that with a nice FT focuser from Starlight. And I also bought an Atik 428EX CCD camera. Then came a PST and two CMOS cameras from the QHY stable. QHY5L and a QHY5L-II. These cameras work as guiders but the QHY5L I also use for imaging the Moon-Planets and our Star with the PST. I also have a IOptr