imaging together (Caledon)

7:55 PM, Saturday 18 April 2015. Nicole pinged me at  "Be there in 2." I started hauling my gear outside.

We wanted some snacks. I forgot to make a pit stop on the way so we rolled up to Caledon.

Overshot the road to the park—I actually saw the non-reflective sign out of the corner of my eye. We doubled back. And, despite using Nicole's iPhone with GPS, overshot MacLaren Road again! OK. Finally on track.

The dirt road in was in terrible shape! Wow. Just horrible. Even at 1 or 2 km/h, we were getting tossed around.

Spotted someone in the parking lot with a 'scope. Huh. How about that.

Never did chat with them.

Helped Nicole set up. She was going to image through the OTA.

I wanted to image with my barn door tracker.

9:23 PM. Nicole spotted the "ISSpresso!" Dang! I wanted to image it! I was still not set up.

Didn't hear an alarm from the Android. But then it was still in the car.

Used focusing mask and the computer.

10:19. Viewed Io on limb of Jupiter. Neat, super bright, over the darkened limb. Never seen that before.

SkyTools seemed really slow.

Met Frank a few minutes back. New member of the Mississauga RASC. Hi.

10:48. Did detailed polar alignment with SkyTools.

10:54. Tried imaging Cancer. Manually plate-solved. Head of Hydra.

Jupiter at the top of the frame. Ah! Just caught the Beehive. Re-aimed.

Nicole set up for the Messier 51 (M51).

11:11. I tried Cancer again.

Parking lot got busy...

Tried some of my astro apps in the field. SkySafari Plus worked really good. The magnets in the keyboard freaked out the magneto-sensor.

11:55. Took SQM readings with Nicole's iPhone. 18.08, 19.80, and 19.81.

12:05 AM, Sunday 19 April 2015. I spotted Saturn rising.

Nicole kept remarking that the sky was "so bright." I explained that she was fully dark adapted.

No meteors, sadly.

And, suddenly, we were done.

Packed up.

I shot darks. At first I didn't want to touch the lens so I "black-hatted" it. But my winter toque then fell off.

When Nicole started packing up, I put the lens cap on .

Still didn't have enough. So I initiated another run and put the tethered-camera in the car.

12:42 AM. Noted some landmarks... 2125 after it, McLaren Rd. 1240 on Forks Rd.

§

Had made a note to follow-up on my packing list: ensure the USB kit is included or tagged when planning astro-photography.