NGC 891

[Fay]

NGC 891, not amazing but as it was 1 x20 mins, I thought it was worth a look.

Fay




NGC 6960  4 x 10 mins.



Last night did not go to plan, but that is how it goes with this hobby!

[JohnP]

Fay, tremendous - 20 min subs - you are learning very fast - great images & keep them coming... John

[Tony G]

Fay,
great images, well worth the wait for.
Keep it up and hope to see more soon.

Tony G

[Fay]

Thanks, I did not put many details on post as I was rushing to watch something on tv!

The sky was not very good, I was happy about the round stars on NGC 891, but not sure if it was a fluke getting that long an exposure, we will see. I will be happy to get a stram of 5 min ones.

NGC 6960. I got a really nice 1 x 5 min a couple of nights before this one, but the sky was, again, a lot better.

When I went out, on the 11th, it was not a satisfying night. I decided to concentrate on one subject, the Veil., K3ccd was playing up & would not cooperate, this happens a lot, that took 30 minutes. Then for the next hour I could not get The Veil on the ccd. I took images of where the GOTO had gone to & compared the star patterns with former imasges of Veil, but could not match them. I went to obvious targets like Deneb, & watched in what direction I had to slew, to centre the star, & tried it again on The Veil, no success. After about 2 hours I shut everything down & started again & GOTO went straight to the Veil.
By this time I was a bit cheesed off, & not sure whether to go to bed or do a couple of images.

It is a palaver setting up for guiding & I think it is best to choose your subject for the evening, rather that move around a lot, as there are a lot of cables & it is hard not to disturb them. Also I never realised, until John told me, that you have to make sure that the guiding camera is aligned East - West & you have to move a selected star, East-West & North- South, with the directional arrows on the handset & make sure that it will go in the correct direction. following a straight line, before starting guiding.

I think I have made up for my sparse narrative of the night before.

Fay     

[Mike]

Fay - It is always worth concentrating on just one object, youw ill get far better results that way. Plus in most cases you really need a few hours exposures to get the detail and if you do RGB then you need an entire night.

I have the same GoTo problems from tiem to time. I always quickly home and switch off and back on again, then it seems to behave. Haven't had that with the Version 3 handset so far though.

[Fay]

Thanks Mike,

I think this autoguiding will teach me how to be patient & it will be worthwhile to spend an entire evening on one subject, rather than keep spending a lot of nights, on shorter exposures, trying to achieve a better image that will only be done with a lot longer exposures on one night.

Fay 

[Whitters]

Hi Fay,
Nice images, One way to be more patient with shooting just one object is to stick your SLR on a photo tripod and take Constellation pictures while your CCD sequence is running.

[Fay]

Paul , that is a very good idea. I have thought that I would not have time to do both, but using a tripod would be no trouble, as once the guiding etc is successfully on it's way, there would be plenty of time, thanks.

Fay

[Whitters]

Take a pair of bino's out too, for a bit of visual stuff. It can get a bit dull just waiting for a set of images to finish.

[Mike]

How about practising playing the bagpipes or sorting out your stamp collection?

[Fay]

Well I could put the broom in a strategic position & sweep the lawn!!!!!While i'm waiting.

Fay

[Mike]

I usually take my binos out and spend some time trying to learn my way around the sky. I am always amazed how quickly I forget stuff if I am not getting out and observing/imaging as often as possible.

I am updating my website at the moment and was amazed to discover the last time I uploaded a pic to the forum was October 2006 !!!

[JohnP]

Mike - sounds like it is time to do some more..... Hopefully DSC will be an opportunity - John.

[Rocket Pooch]

Fay,

Where is a strategic place for a broom?

Oh yes and good to see you are guiding now, when I guide I go inside and watch TV for an hour or two, better than sweeping, and now I have a dog there is less chance of treading in poo whilst walking around trying to keep warm.

Chris


P.S. Not the mouse Poo, dog poo.

[Fay]

What's mouse poo got to do with it? I can understand dog poo & sheep poo!

Chris I can't wait to see your processed images, very impressed with your Lagoon.

Fay