Do the experienced guys still have unsuccessful nights?

[JR1987]

Ive only been practicing my astro imaging since about march.. Ive had a few successes and got some final images im pleased with..

However tonight I just had so much trouble, If it wasnt one thing it was another.. but I found I repeatedly found I had tracking issues even guiding with PHD. 

Feeling quite frustrated and deflated from not making the most of a clear night tonight.. Do even the guys who have many sessions under their belt still sometimes run into problems that leave them empty handed?

[Leveye]

Hmmm...lets me see. Last night I had R.A. over-current messages, collimation issues, balance issues, focal issues with an "astrogragh" telescope not coming to focus at primary focus as it should and running out of travel, PHD2 "star mass change" and dropped guiding issues and very uneven guiding, meridian flips, pinched primary mirror issues, and bats hitting me in the head every few minutes so an absolute yes!

Even with all this I stayed the course and was able to at least image 15 out of the 40 lights I needed to at least get this one by 2a.m. when I wanted to be done before midnight.

Lesson learned? Never give up if the sky's are clear!  It will all make you stronger in the end my lens friend. Look up!

[Thalestris24]

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger!

Louise

[michael8554]

I'm starting a new thread:

"Do Experienced Guys Have ANY Successful Nights?"

Michael

[johnrt]

Do even the guys who have many sessions under their belt still sometimes run into problems that leave them empty handed?

Yes.

See my signature for further details.

[toxic]

yes they do but they also get hit by gremlins now and then so don't feel the gremlins are just picking on you .....think happy thoughts.

[StevieO]

I wouldn't count myself as 'experienced' yet, not compared to many on this site, I'm just into my 2nd year.

I find equipment glitches tend to be quickly resolved, mainly due to them being my own fault and caused by haste to get some subs before the clouds roll in.

Tonight, like a fool, I believed the forecast for 2-3 hours of clear skies around 11pm. Ha!  I chose my target, set everything up, got PHD looping and waited..and waited. Not one single successful sub  before the whole sky was blanketed in cloud. What keeps me going is the occasional genuinely clear night like the one when I got decent images of 3 separate targets in a few hours, and could look up at the milky way with the sense of awe which makes the whole thing worthwhile.

Cheers

StevieO

[Astrosurf]

I've had most of this. As has been said, sometimes my own fault (we get so few clear nights I do forget stuff!  ) or the angle of the mount doesn't agree with it and PHD gets in a tiff. Probably I haven't balanced the scope properly. Friday before last was one in question. Plus wind. Grrrrr. And poss pinched optics. But I got an OK image. We get what we can. And hopefully learn!

Alexxx

[PeterCPC]

All of the above - last night my camera hit one of the tripod legs. The biggest bugbear is always the weather.

Peter

[laser_jock99]

Wouldn't call myself experienced- but yes.

[StargeezerTim]

Its a bit like an assault course at times but its great for developing my problem solving skills and patience! The good nights and rewards outweigh the frustrations and failures. If it was the other way round, I'd be doing something else...sleeping perhaps!

[wxsatuser]

Clear night last night.

Get out early and had a go at the Veil.

Few test shots and get focus spot on and setup for a run of 4minute subs.

Guiding very good and checked the first two subs, looking very good.

Let it run, about 90mins later check a sub......argh!......darn focus went awol

after the third sub.......big red rings around every star.

This normally never happens with an L lens.

Setup on new target and focus is now spot on, argh!......the cloud arrives.

I hate this hobby.

Can't be bothered anymore and went for some shuteye.

[MartinB]

Only a fool would say no!!

Sticking with kit and software you have got used to is the key. Everytime you add to or change your set up you are introducing a new set of "challenges". For the past 3 or 4 years I haven't made any changes, problems still crop up but I can now recognise them know how to sort them out...by and large. When I started it drove me mad having to be under a rare crystal clear sky staring at a laptop trying to get kit to work sometimes for hours without success (as anyone present at Kelling a few years ago will testify when my adaptive optics refused to perform). I've just changed my mount and expect to be back in the world of gremlins but hopefully I will manage to stay calmer than in days of yore.

[laudropb]

You bet I do. It's the occasional successful one that keeps us going.

[Astrosurf]

Clear night last night.

Get out early and had a go at the Veil.

Few test shots and get focus spot on and setup for a run of 4minute subs.

Guiding very good and checked the first two subs, looking very good.

Let it run, about 90mins later check a sub......argh!......darn focus went awol

after the third sub.......big red rings around every star.

This normally never happens with an L lens.

Setup on new target and focus is now spot on, argh!......the cloud arrives.

I hate this hobby.

Can't be bothered anymore and went for some shuteye.

No, don't give up! I've been at the point of throwing in the towel many a time, but the rewards are so worth sticking at it. My having a good astro group helps. And on here of course! You're not alone!

[MattJenko]

Like some others, I would not class myself as experienced but each session has so much that can go wrong it is extremely rare for a session to be completely plain sailing, and I can't remember one that was for me. What does come with experience is the ability to know how to quickly get back on track (pardon the pun) so that each setback has minimal impact on our ever so precious clear moments. Having a repeatable workflow helps immensely in this regard, so a lot of it comes pretty automatically.

[ChrisLX200]

I still get problems that show up but never so bad that I'm forced to give up. The most likely candidate is the computer, but I have backup disk images so if I get a persistant fault it only takes a few minutes to restore an earlier version of the whole thing. I also used to get intermittant tracking or guiding errors that would degrade the images but that has totally gone with the new mount.

ChrisH

[Macavity]

Do the experienced guys still have unsuccessful nights?

Heheh. No comment?  Oh, you mean Astronomy!

In retrospect, I think I chose quite a difficult option:

full-blown "remote control" on a smallish budget.

It all works "99%", but I do feel quite "burnt out"...

(Note to self - This is supposed to be a *hobby*! lol)

Maybe I'll take a year off and run walk?

A sort of "Forrest Gump" sabbatical... 

Not just a whinge, but a commendation 

to all my brother / sister Astronomers.

[glowingturnip]

am I experienced - nope

do things go wrong - oh yes !  Thankfully I've not had a complete session go down the pan recently, apart from due to cloud, but saying that has probably jinxed it now

As Matt said, repeatable workflow is key - I've actually gone to the extent of making a checklist of everything I have to do that I have on the laptop screen when setting up - stops me forgetting things like rebalancing for the camera, covering the viewfinder, shooting at the wrong ISO, taking the bahtinov mask off, clipping the cables, etc etc etc...

[r3i]

No matter how long you've been at it, there's any number of things that can and will go wrong, even when everything is permanently set up in an observatory.  You just have to accept that it's part and parcel of pursuing this hobby. 

I try to be philosophical in that I learn a lot more when things go wrong and need to be fixed.  Where's the fun in everything working perfectly 100% of the time?

[Astrosurf]

Hmmmm, it's probably quantum. :icon_scratch:

[Rush]

Winning a jackpot is more likely than a well running imaging session.

Returning aftter 2 hours to see a long planned sequncing all drenched in dew soup Is not a rare thing. Huh! forgot to power on the dewschield:(

This hobby keeps telling me im misfit for the night and my mind tool is far out of my reach and im night sky addicted.

Cables,mount,laptop including mosquitoes,they all attack. Prone to make errors any night or even everynight.

[Astrosurf]

We're all maaaaaad!!!!!!!!!!

[toxic]

i think we are all experienced as long as you mean things going wrong, i don't think that kind of experience ever ends it just get easier to cope with.

[Davey-T]

After two imaging runs on previous nights when all went well, last night I switched everything on, permanently mounted in obs'y, had only been switched off and on again, tried to change the filter and got a message "filter wheel not connected" WHY oh WHY   problem caused by computer as usual.

Dave