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Anouther fox down. View attachment 7659 the local magpie family has been a great help in letting me know when they are coming.
Well done, the only good fox is a dead fox. They are deadly hunters, i saw one catch a bronewing pidgeon one day by hiding in the wheat stubble then leaping on the poor unsuspecting bird when it was picking up a bit of grain.
 
Cooking fish n chips for tea. Fish NZ who knows what! Aussie chips. Shops here are skinned chip wise, managed to get some from our IGA.
Your Fish is most likely Hoki from NZ..... Chips would be potatoes From ??????:cool:

Our Coles, Woolworths, IGA and Aldi hasn't had chips for months....:(

LW.....
 
Well done, the only good fox is a dead fox. They are deadly hunters, i saw one catch a bronewing pidgeon one day by hiding in the wheat stubble then leaping on the poor unsuspecting bird when it was picking up a bit of grain.

This particular one was trying to steal a meal of an eagle when I snuck up on it. Had to wait for the eagle to take off and get some distance from the ground before unloading on the fox as they were close together and I was using a shotgun. When foxes are distracted by food and other animals its possible to get close to them. After I tend to drag them into my home garden and plant a fruit trees on them. Sometimes I loose them in the neighbours vineyard but the magpies tell me they are still there and just gone to ground. Need a friend with a drone to send me in the right direction when that happends.
 
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Well doing it last night actually.
Found a good spot away from the lights of Geelong to get a relatively good non light polluted view of the Northern horizon, sheltered from the breezy conditions.
Set up my telescope and camera hoping to get a special photo of red Mars and green comet in conjunction in the one shot.
Got there about 7.30pm set it all up levelled, balanced, roughly focused and aligned, powered up and waiting for dark. Stars started to come out about 8.30 and managed the final star alignment but just before I could get Mars and the comet into view and manage even one shot, a big cloud bank rolled in from the west. Raining this morning.
Don't think I will get another chance tonight because of the weather and probably an opportunity lost forever. Bugger.
Geelong fine one minute, shite weather the next.
Ceres set up 2.jpg
 
Well doing it last night actually.
Found a good spot away from the lights of Geelong to get a relatively good non light polluted view of the Northern horizon, sheltered from the breezy conditions.
Set up my telescope and camera hoping to get a special photo of red Mars and green comet in conjunction in the one shot.
Got there about 7.30pm set it all up levelled, balanced, roughly focused and aligned, powered up and waiting for dark. Stars started to come out about 8.30 and managed the final star alignment but just before I could get Mars and the comet into view and manage even one shot, a big cloud bank rolled in from the west. Raining this morning.
Don't think I will get another chance tonight because of the weather and probably an opportunity lost forever. Bugger.
Geelong fine one minute, shite weather the next.
View attachment 7861
I was thinking while driving the Canning stock route and viewing the arc of the Milky Way, what fun it would be to have a setup like yours to view things. But I thought you had just bought a property in central Victoria?

Took my tiny son to climb the Ballarat telescope the night that Schumaker-Levy plowed into Jupiter. He loved it, but got terrified climbing back down the vertical ladder, preventing a few disgruntled adults from getting a view. Of course the telescope was no good for the comet itself (watched the broadcast inside the observatory) but is good enough to see rings etc. Telescope was built in the 1800s by a mining engineer and meets once per week.
 
No Goldierocks, have actually just sold our acreage in Daisy Hill (Maryborough). This was to be our prospecting hub and I also had plans for an observatory there which only got half finished before we decided to sell.
It all became too much time, worry and effort having to manage in addition to our place here in Highton. Besides we felt rather restricted in only going to goldfields located close to Maryborough.
We were keen to do a lot more travelling both for prospecting and just holiday time and having two places looked after while away would be problematic.
Reckoned we could do better with a small caravan which we could garage here in Highton and use to travel to a wider variety of goldfields including interstate and also carry a nice portable astro rig like the one shown.
Took a bit of convincing myself to let the property go, but now happy as we seem to have freed up a lot of time to do things we really want to rather than mowing grass and property maintenance for the rest of our lives.
PS Clouds seem to be breaking up, so might be another photo chance up at Ceres for the Mars/Green comet conjunction tonight before they drift too far apart.
 
On an iron roof with a silicone gun chasing leaks with a mental note to one self being, don't get on a hot iron roof in shorts again :rolleyes: Been decades since I had a hot ass, the hard buns are probably more like a slice of wet bread you would feed to a ferret nowadays. But all good as matches the "guns" that have turned into more like holsters I guess 😁
 
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Thought I'd follow up on my post about trying to get an image of the green Comet.
My efforts for a green comet image were wiped out because of clouds but finally got clear skies last night.
The green comet was well past mars this time and definitely fading so missed that opportunity. I messed up badly with my focusing, alignment, and tracking, my excuse being I hadn't used the outfit for a number of years.
Good astrophotographers would not be too impressed, but at least I got an image of the comet and here it is. Hopefully I will have improved my skills when it comes around again in about 50000 years. (At least I won't be capable of making any mistakes).
The first image is taken as a RAW image which is usually stacked (overlaid) with many other RAW images of the same object to give a brighter final processed image.
The second is the same image presented as a processed JPEG. That appears quite dim as only it was produced from a single image. For the technical, exposure was 30seconds at ISO800 with a Canon M6 camera attached to a Vixen 80/700mm ED telescope on a ZEQ 25 tracking mount.
The green tinge is much more noticeable in the RAW image than the processed one. This is caused not by copper emission but by carbon indicating possible organic in the comet.
IMG_2109 (2) (Medium).jpg
IMG_2109 (4).JPG
 
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I started looking for the Green Comet using my binoculars on the 8th but a few clouds made it tricky, thought I could see it on the 9th but I couldn't keep it in view, then a mate told me that I was picking it up in my peripheral vision, and he was right, I pinpointed it just left of Mars on the 10th.
 
I haven't been to the beach for ages, don't go much since I lost my old dog, unless I need to get some cockles. Thought I'd go this morning to check out all the fish that are getting washed out to sea through the Murray Mouth, it's what you would describe as a fish kill of epic proportions. Fortunately it seems to be mainly carp with a few Redfin and Boney Bream.20230215_072205.jpg20230215_064050.jpg20230215_064100.jpg20230215_064105.jpg20230215_063945.jpg
 
I'm trying to login to my new Tafe course on the Blackboard but I think I need the lesson just to get myself logged in 😂

You haven’t been added to any units in Blackboard. Please contact your lecturer.

Somehow I think the incompetence is actually at the other end. Mrs M got to the Editing and Literacy page and couldn't believe the errors on the Tafe webpage 😂
 
I haven't been to the beach for ages, don't go much since I lost my old dog, unless I need to get some cockles. Thought I'd go this morning to check out all the fish that are getting washed out to sea through the Murray Mouth, it's what you would describe as a fish kill of epic proportions. Fortunately it seems to be mainly carp with a few Redfin and Boney Bream.View attachment 7961

View attachment 7962View attachment 7963View attachment 7964View attachment 7965
But the number of carp is scarey. Our local club totals up in tonnes of carp the club members remove each year.....
 
On an iron roof with a silicone gun chasing leaks with a mental note to one self being, don't get on a hot iron roof in shorts again :rolleyes: Been decades since I had a hot ass, the hard buns are probably more like a slice of wet bread you would feed to a ferret nowadays. But all good as matches the "guns" that have turned into more like holsters I guess 😁
Hi Diginit. I know what you mean about hot rooves. Been doing a lot of that myself lately. My two slices of wet bread, feel more like burnt toast now!!
 
I haven't been to the beach for ages, don't go much since I lost my old dog, unless I need to get some cockles. Thought I'd go this morning to check out all the fish that are getting washed out to sea through the Murray Mouth, it's what you would describe as a fish kill of epic proportions. Fortunately it seems to be mainly carp with a few Redfin and Boney Bream.View attachment 7961View attachment 7962View attachment 7963View attachment 7964View attachment 7965
Now those fish would have made a great fertaliser. My ute might have been on the nose for a while though.
 

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