Really starting to lose interest

[Spoon]

Evening all,

Been into astronomy for about 3 years now and about May last year I got into deep sky AP, then up until about May this year I really loved it. Then disaster struck. I got an auto guider and the first 2 times I used it it worked flawlessly, 10 minute subs and no trailing then after that it just went downhill. The last 10/11 times I've been out the mout struggles to get even 30 sec subs without trailing and it's really starting to annoy me. As I go back to school on Thursday I thought I'd get out and try one more time as I'm going into 6th form this year and won't have much time for AP. And it is because of this annoyance that I am starting to lose interest. Sounds stupid I know but I'm sure some of you will get it. I can't really afford to buy even a second hand HEQ5. I currently have a CG5 but it's never failed me before. I do exactly the same routine every time I go out so I don't know what's going on. Recalibrated the polar scope and everything but no difference. I love astronomy to pieces but AP is really getting on my nerves at the moment.

Rant over.

Cam

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[damnut]

Hi  Cam,

We all have our moments when we feel we have to quit, I had to sell everything from my 10"Lx200 downwards four fracs, mounts ep's. Now after a little time I have a decent amount of kit and back up and running. If you have your A's coming up then you would have to make certain choices about your time, I know I had to 30 odd years ago. So if you do leave it for a while do so knowing that you will be able to pick it up and get things resolved when you have your options sorted. It would be worth seeing if you have a local group who could give you some help before you throw the towel in.

Good Luck.

[rowan46]

 If imaging isn't doing it for you go back to basics for a while. presumably you found it relaxing and interesting  before you got into imaging so just get your bins out or your scope and have a look through them.  Life is about to get more stressful and  more complicated as you move out of adolescence and into full adulthood  and a look at the universe is sometimes a good way of putting problems into perspective. On the other hand the stars have been around for a while and there is likely to still be a few around if you take a break and come back at a later time.

[Singlin]

Try completely uninstalling your guiding software and configuration files and re install.

[Spoon]

If imaging isn't doing it for you go back to basics for a while. presumably you found it relaxing and interesting before you got into imaging so just get your bins out or your scope and have a look through them. Life is about to get more stressful and more complicated as you move out of adolescence and into full adulthood and a look at the universe is sometimes a good way of putting problems into perspective. On the other hand the stars have been around for a while and there is likely to still be a few around if you take a break and come back at a later time.

I suppose that's a good point. Just annoying that it started out really well then just went to pot

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[lensman57]

Evening all,

Been into astronomy for about 3 years now and about May last year I got into deep sky AP, then up until about May this year I really loved it. Then disaster struck. I got an auto guider and the first 2 times I used it it worked flawlessly, 10 minute subs and no trailing then after that it just went downhill. The last 10/11 times I've been out the mout struggles to get even 30 sec subs without trailing and it's really starting to annoy me. As I go back to school on Thursday I thought I'd get out and try one more time as I'm going into 6th form this year and won't have much time for AP. And it is because of this annoyance that I am starting to lose interest. Sounds stupid I know but I'm sure some of you will get it. I can't really afford to buy even a second hand HEQ5. I currently have a CG5 but it's never failed me before. I do exactly the same routine every time I go out so I don't know what's going on. Recalibrated the polar scope and everything but no difference. I love astronomy to pieces but AP is really getting on my nerves at the moment.

Rant over.

Cam

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Hi Cam,

I can really relate to your feelings not only because of the hardware malfunction but also becuase of the lousy horrible weather for imaging that I have in Manchester. At times I also wonder why I spent so much money on equipment for a hobby that I  have absolutely no control over what so ever as far as the atmospheric conditions go. But when I really hit rock bottom I just grab my 15 X 70s and  go out and look around the sky. That is what I used to do a very long time ago when I was a child back where I was born using my dad's Bino's, and this at times just takes me back to being a child looking at the universe through a small pair of Bino's , it just makes me happy again in a small measure. Do Not Give Up.

A.G

[Spoon]

Hi Cam,

I can really relate to your feelings not only because of the hardware malfunction but also becuase of the lousy horrible weather for imaging that I have in Manchester. At times I also wonder why I spent so much money on equipment for a hobby that I have absolutely no control over what so ever as far as the atmospheric conditions go. But when I really hit rock bottom I just grab my 15 X 70s and go out and look around the sky. That is what I used to do a very long time ago when I was a child back where I was born using my dad's Bino's, and this at times just takes me back to being a child looking at the universe through a small pair of Bino's , it just makes me happy again in a small measure. Do Not Give Up.

A.G

At least I'm not the only one. I might try and get a 200mm dob as that scope showed me so much galaxies wise and that's really what I love looking at but not necessarily imaging. They're a pain to image for me I have an ED80 which is great for surfing the Milky Way with but light pollution in coventry is a right pain. Completely blocks everything out.

On thing that did come out of tonight was a quick shot of the moon and Saturn through the scope. Two images blended together obviously. I think it's alright. I'm happy with it

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[lensman57]

At least I'm not the only one. I might try and get a 200mm dob as that scope showed me so much galaxies wise and that's really what I love looking at but not necessarily imaging. They're a pain to image for me I have an ED80 which is great for surfing the Milky Way with but light pollution in coventry is a right pain. Completely blocks everything out.

On thing that did come out of tonight was a quick shot of the moon and Saturn through the scope. Two images blended together obviously. I think it's alright. I'm happy with it

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Tonight I came home with my wife having spent a lovely evening at my brother's with the family. When I got home the sky was so clear that I told my wife that I'd be setting up for imaging. Having set up, star aligned and polar aligned all the clouds rolled in from no where, I packed up and came in. On average I'd be lucky if I could get to image twice  a month and even then it is for a relatively short time, 2~3 hours per session at the most.

A.G

[ChrisLX200]

AP can bring out the best - and the very worst, aspects of the astronomy hobby. Stuff that doesn't work like it should (for no discernable reason) comes near top of the list - right after incessant clouds that stop you doing anything in the first place! You are right in expecting the mount to guide correctly, and you've proved it's possible because it worked OK in the past, so I think I'd be equally annoyed if I were in your position. The only way of fixing it though is to examine each component to find where the problem lies - hardware and software. That sounds so easy and logical but we all know it's far from the truth. However If it were me I'd start with the hardware, give the mount a service - check for excessive play in the drives, backlash, gears binding etc., and lubricate the moving parts. Then look to check everything locks up tightly - scope mounting doesn't shift, focuser doesn't wobble, guide camera is not loose in focuser, cables are not pulling on anything, and so on. Don't forget to review the basic parts of setting up, get good polar alignment to start with because guiding is only supposed to correct minor drive errors and not correct for poor alignment.

If that lot doesn't fix it, and you're sure there is nothing outstanding, then you can move on to looking at software settings. I would be loath to muck about with software (PHD) settings first in the hope of fixing the problem because if the problem is a simple mechanical one then you'll spend forever and get nowhere. You need to be confident the hardware is in fine fettle first - and PHD does a pretty good job of guiding with the default settings anyway and changing the settings are simply 'tweaks' to improve things not fundemental changes to make it work (IMHO).

ChrisH

[swag72]

Don't fret over losing interest - Do whatever you enjoy at the moment and you will find that your interest will probably naturally be rekindled at some stage. I think trying to force something just because you feel you should, is probably a sure fire way of destroying your enjoyment of a hobby...... it will become a chore. 

[Crose01]

I have the same mount and I have had exactly the same issues for several months. I've upgraded to PHD2 from my trusty 1.14 and it has improved dramatically. I will take the advice of the above posters and service my mount at some stage as it's getting quite stiff. There are kits available (new washers, grease and tools) that you can get for your mount and there are several websites that are on this topic.

[Tom OD]

Hi there

As mentioned above, we've all had these kind of nights. I was out imaging 2 weeks ago, and the guiding wouldn't work. It wa sworking flwlessly the night before. In those circumstances I go straight for the cables. Nothing was disconnected, or loose, so I disconnected them and re-connected the anyway. Hey presto it worked again. I don;t know maybe it was a dry contact as I hear people call it. Are the guiding pulses moving the star? Going from 10mins to 30s sounds like no commands are sent or recieved. More than likely its the not being received by the mount.

Tom.

[wuthton]

It's enough to put you in the funny farm sometimes.

A few nights ago my motorised focuser would only travel in one direction, I gave up on it and focused manually.

Then I went to Astrotortilla which failed to solve (it never fails to join the party when things are not working well) so I framed my image manually.

Fired up PHD, complete fail, wouldn't guide. I gave up and went indoors.

Last night, I'm in a better mood and ready to solve whatever was wrong but everything worked flawlessly with no intervention.

Aaarg!

[greglloyd]

Never done proper astrophotography but I have had a number of scopes through the years with different apertures and complexity (mounts, goto, SCT's that are dew magnets, etc).

I've left the hobby numerous times. Mostly because my life gets busier and busier and I have less free time. Two kids and all that....

After a number of months pass, I will look up and see Jupiter or something in the (usually dark winter) sky and regret getting rid of my equipment. Another scope bought then....

Anyway, I've found that the very best purchased I've made was to get a 12" dob. Big enough aperture to give me the kind of views I want to see. Globs bright and fully resolved, nebulae with great detail (with and without UHC filter). That's what I am looking for these days, a bit of visual wow factor with the simple dob setup in the short time I have to observe.

This time, I will not get rid of a single thing..... For even if some months go by where the interest wanes, I know that the spark will re-ignite when that bright Jupiter is up high in the sky again and I think "if only I had a scope around?"

Clear Skies :-)

[Spoon]

Good news, tonight was better and guiding was great however after 10 minutes of capturing pictures, the nemesis came. CLOUDS. I really hate clouds and I'm sure most if not all of us here do but I was ready to cry lol.

Cam

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[ollypenrice]

If it worked once it will work again, as you've seen. As Tom says, first stop should be your cables. Then a re-install of the software.

'We do not do these things because they are easy...'  (JFK on sending manned lunar missions.)

Olly

[Spoon]

If it worked once it will work again, as you've seen. As Tom says, first stop should be your cables. Then a re-install of the software.

'We do not do these things because they are easy...' (JFK on sending manned lunar missions.)

Olly

Hi olly,

I went out last night and as I said it all worked great but the clouds came in but I also installed PHD2 and on any star in the sky it said RA calib failed, star did not move enough. Why is this? Then I reinstalled PHD1 and it worked. Weird stuff.

Cam

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