Viewing

11.18pm. We are cooking on gas now! After a problem with synchronising the scope, which took ages to resolve, we are finally on the variable star that we chose to study (a star called CC Com, near Leo). We are taking batches of 50 images of 60 seconds each, so with the telescope now tracking the star as it moves across the sky, we can sit back and watch the scope and its laptop work. This is our first success of the night, and I am feeling pretty happy.

It's terrific watching the images coming in, extraordinary that an exposure of just a few seconds can bring up an image showing objects far far fainter than the human eye can see. CC Com, the star we are looking at, is roughly a magnitude 11 I believe, which is pretty faint.

Steve, Norman and I are working really well together tonight. It's all good. We have a few moments of cloud, but I don't mind at the moment. We're on the up.