Back to Spain - January 2020

After a 2 day voyage from Portsmouth to Bilbao I was met with snow on the mountains of northern Spain and almost continuous rain on the 900+ km drive down to Andalucia on the 21st January. Arriving at my observatory location, having driven down the series of dirt tracks in the pitch dark to reach it, then arriving at a very cold house is always challenging. Fortunately I had laid the large log fire at the end of my last visit so I lit that immediately on arrival! The next morning I woke to a noisy thunderstorm with bright lightning flashes and pouring rain which continued unabated until mid afternoon when I was finally able to unload my pick up truck filled with various items that I find easier to obtain in the UK than in Spain  - with delivery to my remote location being difficult. Cloud still persists when I write this on Thursday 23rd January so no observing opportunities yet. There is snow on the moountains - visible in this view from my western terrace.

I did bring a new item of astronomical equipment with me   - a new guiding camera. I had previously used my ZWO 120 MC USB2 camera which proved rather erratic in its operation. My main imaging camera, the ZWO USB3 1600 camera worked flawlessly as a guide camera, guiding my Redcat lens with its Canon 40D DSLR. The new camera is the ZWO 120 MM mono USB3 camera so I will fit that to my Skywatcher 80mm guidescope and test its guiding capabilities. I see that many astrophotographers are using this as a guide camera. I use the SkyX autoguiding software although I can use the PHD2 software as an alternative.