Kokatha man 48 Report post Posted February 16, 2021 Well, hi all the old crew here - it has been a funny old year that's been & gone for sure...finishing up for us with Pat being told in November that she urgently required a quadruple by-pass which she had on 21st December & has recovered well from - hopefully quite a few more miles in her tank now! On a somewhat similar subject Mark the mobile caravan service man visited today & got our van ship-shape & we hope to head off for a few days of fishing soon just to break the cycle of late: apart from not travelling nearly as much last year mainly due to either covid or the constantly cloudy weather, we have not used the van since early October. I thought I'd touch base & post some of our mars images from the 2020 apparition...as said the weather was very poor but we set ourselves the task of creating a set of Mars images to cover the entire vista of Mars' globe & were successful, creating annotated disk maps where quite a lot of Martian features are listed. (can't remember the name for Martian geography is atm ) I'll make a normal map sometime also, probably before the start of Jovian & Saturn imaging commences but we'll be scaling back quite a bit as age & infirmity tax us nowadays! For 2020 Mars rose to 50° at the most with most imaging done at about 48° - next time around we'll be older & slower & Mars will be much lower again so this might represent our last real chance at decent images.....as it was the ADC was an essential piece of equipment for the elevations we had to work with..! Greetings to everyone who comes here & I hope all the old crew are still upright & mobile..!!! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Radar 656 Report post Posted February 16, 2021 Wow mate, you are delivering some serious images. That is true planetary eye candy, and no easy feat. I don't recall ever seeing such as well resolved Olympus Mons. Makes me want to pull out a Mars map and go over all those pertinent details you have captured. P.S Glad Pat's triple bypass went well. Ray Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
timthelder 206 Report post Posted February 16, 2021 Awesome captures Daryl. Especially the first posting (my favorite.) Olympus Mons looks like a zit poking out from the surface. (I know not a pretty analogy but it's how it struck me.) Glad to hear from you as well. Keep on truckin! Tim. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kokatha man 48 Report post Posted February 17, 2021 Hi Ray & Tim - thanks, & good to hear from you two! I was thinking of you two (& Shane) when I dropped in here yesterday...a fairly hot day today & I've replaced the wheels with new tyres on the van a few minutes back - time for my senior's nap now..! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
scorpius 176 Report post Posted March 11, 2021 Incredible images, all of them. Such skill and beautiful presentation. Dave. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kokatha man 48 Report post Posted March 11, 2021 Just dropped in to MAS for a quick look before going back inside the house Dave - thanks for that, I hope everything is ok with you...Pat & I are feeling our ages of late & have been clearing out all the either unwanted or unlikely to use stuff from our sheds etc - I kid myself that it is to get the workshop into a usable state again after letting things go...or alternatively, when we do go (hopefully quite sometime later! ) we won't burden our family with the huge amount of stuff my old man left for us to get rid of just over 10 years ago! With only my middle son left in Adelaide I joked to him that if we did have to be shuffled off to a nursing home, or worse, that as he was the only one living in S.A. anymore the burden would fall upon him - but of course he pitched in regardless as he is a great guy & on holidays atm! We filled the first 5 cubic metre skip bin in an afternoon yesty & I got that one taken away this morning & replaced with another at the same time - this one should complete the task hopefully..! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
scorpius 176 Report post Posted March 11, 2021 Thanks for response. Last year was very quiet and ended on a bit of a sour note. Here in the West been inundated with with high humidity and cloud coming down from the Tropics has made Astro just about a non event. You just had to be out there at the right time at the right place, such opportunities were rare. Ha I just paid a handy Man 250 bux to clean up my block, at 85+ my back will just not hack it. He filled his trailer and 3 wheelie bin of rubbish. !! Will drop you a personal note of interest. Dave Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kokatha man 48 Report post Posted March 12, 2021 As I've just inferred in the pm I've just sent you Dave...unless I sort out another (even more clever) way to transport my scope those rare opportunities that got us these Mars images will make anything even rarer this year. Best wishes to you to Dave. (I think I forgot to put that on the end of my pm reply to you just then) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
scorpius 176 Report post Posted March 12, 2021 Gotcha, no prolems Daryl. You need a hoist like they have on hospital beds. Ha ha.. Dave Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kokatha man 48 Report post Posted March 14, 2021 Hi again Dave - filled the 2nd 5 cubic metre skip bin up yesterday arvo...some cleaning & tidying & I might be able to work in my main workshop area again soon! You & me sound like we have similar back issues (disk material squeezed out of the lower vertebrae & impinging on major nerves, amongst other issues! ) & although I've lost quite a lot of weight I'm thinking perhaps some more belt-tightening might be in order...mind you, for your height I reckon you are pretty light at 82kgms..! I already use a small hydraulic hoist on wheels that makes a big difference but I want/need further sophistication...trying to work out how is as much fun as the astro work in many ways! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
