Bloody weather!

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Nod

Nod

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While I'm slightly of the view that there's no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing as far as my person is concerned, I haven't seen the moon, let alone been able to get a shot of it since the 2x teleconverter for the Fuji 100-400 arrived! Currently persisting down. Oh, well, I suppose I can wait a little while - there'll actually be some moon in a few days (while the full moon's a fairly boring, plain disk, at least there's something to shoot - never had much luck shooting the dark side of it!)
 
That's because a couple of weeks ago I took delivery of a new astronomical telescope Nod. Guarenteed 6 months of cloudy nights. You could try the Sun instead - I've seen that a couple of times lately - but there are no sunspots atm. You need to move further away from me!
Yes the sky is often clear at full moon................
 
I'm glad it's your fault not mine, Jan! :P

Seen the Sun a couple of times - just long enough to get to the beach and back with the roof down. Got an A4 sheet of Baader film as well but haven't made a filter yet! Going to dig through my old UV filters and try sticking some film to one of them to fit the 100-400. Failing that, I'll make one up as advised in the info leaflet and set it in some guttering downpipe as a protector/hood.

Just over 4 weeks until we'll be almost guaranteed plenty of clear skies and almost zero light pollution to our South- 200 miles of open Mediterranean between us and Libya!
 
A cereal packet (eat the cereal first) and lots of double sided tape is all you need with the Baader film. And a box to keep the filter in once you've made it to protect it. Don't do what I did with the one I made to fit my Hitech filter holder. I took it to the Algarve with me last year (an astonomy holiday so it was allowed....) and the first time I used it I dropped it on a stone and put a tear in it. Fortunately the tear was outside the bit the lens looks through. It's going back to the Algarve later this year - still with the insulating tape repair.
 
Same here. I was given a Sigma 600 mirror and have just bought an adapter for my Nex 6- which arrived a week ago.

... and the cloud cover at night has not been helpful :) Moonrise is at about 1.30am up here.
 
I think I have a Cokin P system holder and rings somewhere - I suppose a square one is easiest to make and store safely? I guess a hood is of limited value when shooting the Sun!
 
Nod said:
I think I have a Cokin P system holder and rings somewhere - I suppose a square one is easiest to make and store safely? I guess a hood is of limited value when shooting the Sun!
Click to expand...

Well I don't use a lens hood for the Sun because I can't. I made the filter holder one for travelling and the tube type because it's easier to use, both for the 70-300mm. I made a tube one for the 150-600mm because I think it's a bit big for the filter holder. The flat one is easier to store but less easy to fit. Swings and roundabouts.
 
Not planning on taking it on holiday - the Sun tends to be visible here occasionally and when I get around to making the thing, I'll pop it on from time to time and see what sort of activity's going on. I'll also be keeping an eye on transit timings and eclipses. I'll pop into a model shop and get some reasonably thick polystyrene board for making up a square one - should be (note the should!) more durable than cereal packet! Pretty sure I've got a couple of empty P size plastic sleeve type boxes somewhere.
 
If I put the (unmounted as yet!) film away somewhere safe, the Sun will start looking like a teenager's nose!!!
 
Deal! (Just don't tell the clouds that I'll be looking for that sliver of moon later, with the X-T1, 100-400 and 2x telecon...)
 
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