Flare, Satellite, Luna, Venus and Toy

That sounds almost a bit like Bell Book and Candle... Ah well..

I looked out and saw this, so grabbed a shot handheld.




HA predicted a nice flare , so I setup the SatCatcher. Having the tripod out, I grabbed a shot of the Moon and Venus aiming to capture some Earthshine.



Then, whilst grabbing a test shot, as the sky wasn't full dark, I was surprised to see a track within the image... Turns out it was Cosmos 1536


Then the flare, by this point, the sky was getting misty, so I'm quite pleased I caught it. I'm even more pleased that the stars showed in the shot.


And then, today, I was even more pleased. I got my new toy, just before the price rises...

An HEQ5. Sat on top, is the C80ED, and on top of that the Vista 80S. I had to put the other scope on top, so that I could balance the mount out, the camera makes it hard to balance. I have another dovetail that will fit on top of that, when I've adjusted it, making it all just that little bit firmer. Oh, and the finder won't stay on the Vista either.