Saturdays Suckers Gap Sunshine 16th January

[marktownley]

Yesterday we had a well defined band of rain pass swiftly east wards overnight, and behind followed a 'suckers gap' a band of transparent clear air before bands of showers kick in. I moved the mount slightly to allow me to image earlier as by my usual afternoon slot it would be cloudy again. It was a race against time, and the full disk wasn't on band properly, so I quickly switched to a different camera and scale for the closer view as I knew the cloud wasn't far off hence dust bunnies not being removed. Minutes later cloudy!

HA-FD-DS-BW by Mark Townley, on Flickr

HA-FD-DS-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ar12796-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ar12796-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

It is nice to get some sunshine time!

Mark

[Fabio_Imm]

Well done Mark,
Beautiful southern hemisphere.

I know the "race against time" feeling

CS
Fabio

[marktownley]

Thanks Fabio, I might give some imaging a try in a bit but is quite overcast here at the moment.

[ffellah]

Good results from the suckers gaps, Mark

Franco

[LTHB]

Nice shots, Mark!

And your experience sounds very familiar! The joy to see any sun at all after days and days of grey cloud cover, the lack of time for flats, the slightly desperate efforts to find a spot for the mount where the telescope can see the low sun. (In my case it's the corner of a balcony, the mount running with counterweights up, the scope barely clearing the house wall.)

Kind regards,

Frank

[Stardust5858]

Well done Mark, I know that feeling, I set up yesterday and today hopefully chasing gap's to no avail

[dhkaiser]

Nice quick grab Mark! We take what we can get.

[EGRAY_OBSERVATORY]

Well done Mark at being able to get the captures at last

Thanks vm
Terry

[Montana]

Well done Mark! great shots just 100 miles north and we have had dark grey clouds and rain all weekend

Alexandra

[eroel]

Mark:
Happily you got the Sun in the gap, very nice images.
Best wishes.
Eric.

[Carbon60]

Hi Mark,

He who dares....and all that...

Nice images resulting from your patience. Those types of sessions can be so frustrating, but worth the effort.

Stu.

[yltansg]

Great shots, Mark. Your posting reminded of the weather I experienced in the UK (mostly in London,Hertfordshire and Bristol in the 1982-83). Winter was cold and grey

Alfred

[MapleRidge]

Hi Mark...

Nice to see you caught some sun in the breaks

Brian

[marktownley]

Thanks everyone for the kind comments, it's just nice to be able to observe the sun. Thursday and Friday are coming up as sunny days so I might see about working at home then and having a solar lunch break...

[MAURITS]

Nice to see Mark.

[marktownley]

Thanks Maurits!

[marios i.]

Fantastic images Mark.

[rsfoto]

Hi Mark,

Well done. Did not see until today

[DeepSolar64]

Mark,
You did better than I did on Saturday. I was completely clouded out. The images look really good.

James

[marktownley]

Thanks Y'all!