All set up and nowhere to view

Well, what can I say. The weather has done it again. A fine and sparkling day, only the odd cloud ambling across the sky to spoil the view. By the time the sun had set and the sky had grown dark enough, about 6pm, I could see it was a really crisp and clear night and the sky was truly spectacular. Unfortunately, I had a number of things to get done around the house, so couldn't go out and gaze through the scope. Still, whilst putting the bins (rubbish, not optical, although some might argue about my optical ones being rubbish ;o)) I perused the sky with the old Mk 1 eyeball.

I had agreed that I would attempt to guesstimate the magnitude of Epsilon Auriga for the Variable Star section of the SPA. Whilst I was out I worked out which star to check (always best to know which one you're looking at) and had a quick gaze at the Pleiades, Orion and Cassiopeia. Still I thought I'd be ok in an hours time after dinner, more fool me. Anyway, for the first time, I figured I'd try and plan out what targets I was going to aim at and pulled Turn Left at Orion off the shelf. I produced a list of about 10 or 15 targets all ready for a night outside under the stars.

Little did I know at the time or anticipate that this was not to be. After dinner was done and cleared away, I grabbed my scope, flightcase of gear, coat, gloves, hat and scarf and got ready, turning the lights in the house off as I went. I got all the gear outside (it's not really that tricky with my little scope) looked up, to find.... Yes you guessed it. CLOUDS!!!! lots and lots of CLOUDS!!!!. I could see a grand total of 2 stars somewhere near the zenith. I've no idea what even those two were as they were blotted out within about 30 seconds.

Dejected but still very warm (I'd wrapped up before going into the garden) I carried all the gear back in. Ever the optimist I kept going back to the window and checking... A couple of hours later, I checked and there was a break in the clouds and a crisp view overhead. Aha... Grab the jumper, put on the boots, grab the Binocular's. This took all of 2 minutes... By the time I'd got back outside the gap had gone. So I packed it all away again (this took even less time). I tinkered with a couple of pictures in Elements again (still no better at this, but I figure keep playing and maybe one day I'll have an epiphany).

Anyway, I removed the noise from the sunset image I'd taken on Jan 26th. Here it is.

A brief mount update

I've made no progress at all. The accountant won't authorise any expense, it's not needed apparently, so the HEQ5 isn't gonna happen, the EQ5 that was on offer second hand has been withdrawn and I still haven't heard anything on the EQ2. There is a Vixen Porta Mount on Astro buy and sell which looks quite interesting.