Cloud Dodging = Ken (Fogfire's) Western WA Astronomy Blog

12:55AM 6/24/2012

No live blogging of the events.. as I was busy with my scope!!


But I did get an unexpected decent night for PEC training the CGEM.

The air dried out and at 8PM I had 95% clear skies.. So I started the process again.

Put the OTA out to cool. Checked satellite images. No thick clouds until central Oregon.
Checked to see why Clear Sky Clock said it should be mostly cloudy. Looked like the Canadian model had thunder storms growing in the Cascades which didn't happen!!

It looked real.. so I did a full set up.. Ran my alignment. got PHD running and guiding.. well.
Then connected the mount to the PC and ran PEC Tools... there was some concern that the high Cirrus that started to flow in around 11pm (when it starts to get dark) might come in before I could run 5 batches of PEC recording and training.

But I got just over an hour so not only got the batch PEC Training done, but got to test it. Sure enough with PEC playback on, the East . West Guiding events were reduced quite a bit. So PEC does reduce the amount of correction PHD has to do. 12:15 the high cirrus started to pack in and wipe out transparency.. I grabbed a quick peek at some favorites and had my take down completed by 12:50PM.

No I just need clear, night with good transparency and seeing to make a run at imaging...with BY EOS..

It has taken forever to get enough good nights, but I have my gear all trained and tested.

Off to bed I have work in the morning...