The sky had been cloudy for what seemed to be an eternity, but we’re now in a brief period of sunny days and clear nights.  Of course, it is also very cold and windy.  The cold I can deal with by operating the observatory from inside the house as much as possible.  Wind, especially a strong jet stream, is more problematic. I’ve been shooting the California Nebula (NGC1499) for the last 2 nights, using the William Optics Star71, which is relatively insensitive to atmospheric turbulence because of its small aperture and low magnification.  The first night I captured a couple […]