The trials of imaging!!!

[Carole]

You would think after 6 years imaging you'd have it all off pat. 

As it was a clear sky last night thought I'd do some narrowband which hopefully would not be affected by the fireworks, so kept my fingers crossed a firework would not land on me in the obsy. Dog was tucked away nicely in the house with Adrian - a bit subdued due to the loud firework bangs. (The dog that is, not Adrian Ha ha).

First of all the laptop went into blue screen of death. 
Sorted that, then when I got going again the 2nd time around Teamviewer would not give me a link and password, so had to do it all the old fashioned way, keep going outside to check on things, but this resulted in not realising that guiding was not working very well for some time.

I could do up to 500secs OK, but after that I got horrible trailing. Guide graph was fine, no snagging cables, so what was happening?

Also had the PZT out (POD Zenith Table for the dome) as my target was too high, was really difficult to open up and close, maybe the cold had something to do with it, as only used it in the summer before.

Anyway, I gave up after 2 1/2 hours as my target was now getting towards the trees and shorter subs were not doing the image much justice.  Then after switching off I decided to have a look at my primary mirror to see if there was any dew (just out of interest, not because I suspected any) which meant rotating the scope, and discovered the rig, was not balanced - certainly in Dec, I was sure this was all set up and ready to go!!!  So hopefully the cause of my trailing.  Duh!!!

Not sure if I'll be able to do anything with the data, and typical that you get a rare clear night only for things to go wrong.

We must be masochists.

Carole

[Fay]

Oh dear, Carole, nothing new then. we lose our streamlining due to never getting out there. 

Fay

[Carole]

Went out and did some flats this afternoon in case I can salvage anything.  Checked the balance, and it was only slightly out but hopefully that was what caused the guiding problem, all rectified now for the next session whenever that will be. 

Also the other bummer is that I could see Orion last night, and I am definitely going to lose it from home because of next door's tree which has grown enormously since I built the obsy.  Can possibly get a small gap when it first appears around the house, until it disappears behind the trees. Not sure if I might be able to catch it when it heads towards the west, but definitely won't be able to get a whole evening on it, which is where most of the interesting winter targets are.  Plus all the trees in the gardens that back on to us are taller too.   

Carole

[Fay]

It never ends Carole!!

[Carole]

As if the light pollution wasn't bad enough I now can't even see half the stuff I would like to image. 
Quite depressing.

Carole

[The Thing]

Hi Carole,

What a palaver! I sympathise. The other night I had a great night imaging no probs. Next night, couldn't get focused, power to one mount went and the joystick on the other (with the Newt on it) stopped working. Couldn't get that one polar aligned either, tried all sorts short of looking through the PA scope as there is no direct view of Polaris from the back of the obsy. Just when I had got the main mount sorted it clouded over.

Note to self: keep a bottle of Calvados in the observatory for nights like that!

[RobertM]

Hi Carole,

What a palaver! I sympathise. The other night I had a great night imaging no probs. Next night, couldn't get focused, power to one mount went and the joystick on the other (with the Newt on it) stopped working. Couldn't get that one polar aligned either, tried all sorts short of looking through the PA scope as there is no direct view of Polaris from the back of the obsy. Just when I had got the main mount sorted it clouded over.

Note to self: keep a bottle of Calvados in the observatory for nights like that!

Ditto plus the Calvados is a great idea

[MarkS]

Hi Carole,

What a palaver! I sympathise. The other night I had a great night imaging no probs. Next night, couldn't get focused, power to one mount went and the joystick on the other (with the Newt on it) stopped working. Couldn't get that one polar aligned either, tried all sorts short of looking through the PA scope as there is no direct view of Polaris from the back of the obsy. Just when I had got the main mount sorted it clouded over.

Note to self: keep a bottle of Calvados in the observatory for nights like that!

Ditto plus the Calvados is a great idea

A beer fridge is a better idea.  Not just for beer

Mark