Stuf1978

Well the thread has certainly prompted some discussion on the merits of astrophotography as a whole but I think we can all agree when it all comes together there's nothing more rewarding. 

There's opinions going both ways so it hasn't really helped my dilemma 😂 I guess I should really see what this winter brings and take it from there unless I have an overnight epiphany 😂

There's some great responses here chaps, it's all greatly appreciated. I've never know a hobby that's so equally rewarding and frustrating in equal measures.

As others have mentioned this year has been particularly awful which hasn't helped with my mojo in the slightest. 

25 minutes ago, Gasman said:

I've often heard the term 'old friends' referring to the constellationsand that's how I tend to look at them, if I can't see them this year no big I can always see them next (health etc willing 😆). I popped out the other night and noticed Lyra high in the sky, gave her a quick nod and thought see you later 😄!.

Steve

Love it 👍

5 minutes ago, WolfieGlos said:

You know, I’ve been joining in with the whole “UK weather is rubbish”, etc, but I knew that getting into the hobby. I do get annoyed when I’m part way through an image and it’s clouded over for 2 weeks or a full moon arises or whatever, but there’s nothing we can do about it. Just work with it.

I’ve actually just been back and counted up my imaging time this year. For subs that have been used in images (so discounting scrapped subs from cloud, trailing etc), and not including single shots of the Moon or some recent planetary work….I’ve clocked around 194 hours so far this year. Most have been posted here on SGL. 

I don’t have a dome or anything and I set up every night. To be honest, I’m surprised I’ve clocked that much!! 

That's really good going. I'd consider a good 6-8 hours per night on a single target a success so managing 194 for the year is a fairly healthy number. Kudos 👍

18 minutes ago, Mark2022 said:

For me, the reality of the frustration is the money aspect (which you 'nod' to saying you have £thousands of kit) however, I knew, when buying all the kit I have over the past year, that the weather in this country is generally crap (either cloudy or freezing or too light in the summer etc) and I bought recognising  that, once I have it all 'up and running' to my liking (mount permanently in a shed/obsy and, in time, remote from inside the house) it would be something I'd have only sporadic opportunities to enjoy. I also never thought in terms of having to produce images based on hours and  hours worth of integration time. That's just not my  interest and would bore me to tears. I'm not big on sitting  outside observing either but the idea was simply to be able to do EAA from indoors and take images if and when I wished up to an hour (or perhaps two but largely not) of integration when I felt like it.

I know I've spent far more than I had originally intended or that I should have but then, I did and it's all there for when the 'stars align'. For some people, £thousands means nothing but I have noticed that there are a great number who have spent that money on a whim thinking astro is/was something it's not, but they really don't have the passion for it - it was a whim, and now they're selling up because, as said, it wasn't ever a passion.

So the  question I would ask myself is this: "Am I still passionate about this?" (ignoring the weather issues). If the answer to that question is a resounding "Yes, if I didn't have my kit and the ability do this when the opportunity strikes, I'd be rather unhappy", then there's your answer. It could be (re the amount invested) that you need to reconsider what you have and how it meets your interests in the type of astro which you enjoy (planetary or deep sky etc) but if your answer is "Actually no,  I'm no longer as passionate about the hobby in general" then I guess it would be time to offload.

Would you ever see a week in the future however, which offered wonderfully clear skies and you have sold it all?

All I've done above is download my own thinking if I was in your mindset. Hope it helps.

Mark that really is a great post, thank you. I still am passionate about it and still find it incredible that we can image what we do in our own back gardens with relatively modest equipment and I knew full well the weather was crap when buying all the gear but seeing it sitting there not being used is disheartening. 

However, maybe I do need to be more relaxed about it and learn to play the long game. Family life has taken over in the last couple of years which has lead to guilt in missing out on the occasional clear night.... but do you know what, it doesn't really matter. If I miss out on shooting something one year it's not like it won't be coming back round the year after 😄

19 minutes ago, Elp said:

Maybe look at F2 if you haven't. When I first did it, I took images of three targets in one night but soon realised you still need to spend hours and hours on a single target to get the good deep quality. Its good for browsing the sky though, ie using it like EAA.

I don't want to throw more money at the problem if I'm honest. 

5 minutes ago, fwm891 said:

This year has been bad, worse than most. An observatory of some sort helps, even just a pier with the mount set-up so you don't need major PA's each session. Set-up and break-down are often the off putting stages because they're basically non productive so reducing them or removing them is a real bonus.

I have a RoR obsy and my set-up is usually plugging in a power lead to a wall socket and connecting my laptop to the mount/camera (oh and rolling back the roof!).

This year has been woeful. Unfortunately I don't have the space for an observatory so setting up and dismantling is a necessity.

3 minutes ago, Elp said:

Also it depends how long it takes to setup. My smaller ones around 15-20 mins physical from scratch, then around 10-20 again, PA, focus, plan and run. The camera one I can setup indoors and carry it all out as one saving time. I've done it so everything can be packed away into backpacks so take up little space indoors (less risk of you just staring at it wondering about its existence).

Yeah doesn't take too long. Maybe 45 minutes as everything needs to be set up from scratch everytime. Set up time doesn't really concern me when I only get 4 imaging sessions in a year 😂

1 minute ago, Gasman said:

Been there Stu and got the T shirt on that and switched to microscopy which obviously is not weather dependent BUT funnily enough I'm presently reviving my trusty old NEQ6 mount and Esprit refractor which has been sitting patiently in my dome for over 4 yes. I very nearly sold all my gear but glad I hung onto it now. A nice surprise was to find the mount spring back to life when I powered it up. I'm sussing out Nina at the moment so haven't done any observing yet but the astro interest is starting to return, maybe the weather frustration will return who knows 👍.

Steve

Thanks Steve, good to hear the interest is starting to return. Maybe I should look at alternatives, remote imaging could be one solution to plug those cloudy gaps as I still do enjoy the processing side of it 😄

1 minute ago, Elp said:

It's frustrating but I find the second half of the year tends to have better opportunities despite thinking it'll rain or cloud more. Early year tends to be much more unsettled weather and summer nights are very short.

Yeah I've found that over the last couple of years too. Oct to Feb seem to be ok(ish) but the rest of the year is a write off

I can count on one hand the number of imaging sessions I've had this year and non at all in the last 6 months. It's either constantly cloudy or other things getting in the way (which isn't anything to do with geography) but, it's got to the point where I'm considering selling up as I'm sitting on several thousands of pounds worth of equipment that barely gets used. It would be fine if you could guarantee several clear on the trot on a regular basis but this just never happens and I guess I'm becoming a little disillusioned with it all. 

Does anyone else ever get like this and how have you managed to snap out of it? Or has anyone sold up their gear and regretted it or conversely found selling up has liberated them from the need to not waste a clear night?

Guess I'm just venting my thoughts but would like to know what others think.

Thanks

Stu

Stunning, not an easy target at all

Brilliant work, looks great  

8 minutes ago, simmo39 said:

V nice!

 

Thanks 😁

9 minutes ago, George Sinanis said:

Nice colours - the details came through really well.

 

Thank you, really appreciated 👍

Shot over the course of last week from my bortle 8 garden, combining 14.5 hours of narrowband data with 1.5 hours of broadband data for the stars. WO Redcat, HEQ5 Pro, ZWO ASI294MC Pro, Optolong L-eXtreme and UV/IR cut

Critique welcome :)

On 18/01/2023 at 08:24, geeklee said:

  You can get a little Sh2-240 data easily but pulling that out in a way that doesn't look forced is difficult in my eyes.

That is exactly what I found, I had the basic structure at 5 hours with OSC but I had to really push the data and it looked awful. I reckon I'd need to gather 20 plus hours of OSC data from my location to get a presentable image which I just wasn't prepared to do. Tough target for sure

That is spectacular, great work

I tried shooting the spaghetti nebula with a OSC camera (from bortle 8 )and gave up after collecting 5 hours of data due to having very little signal to play with (and clear nights being at a premium). This image highlights the power of mono!!

44 minutes ago, The Admiral said:

 

Thanks both. Logistically, doing both may be a bit difficult, given our weather here in the South, so I think I'll start off in broadband and if possible add NB later. At least that way the HH will be fully represented.

Ian

Good luck. I can sympathise with the weather, this winter has been awful so far for imaging.

33 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

I’ve done a broadband HH without Ha and tbh it looks pretty damn good! You can always add Ha later.

Colour Only:

That looks brilliant, with narrowband you lose all that dust and reflection nebulosity below the horse head.

Why not shoot both and combine. The HH area is indeed rich in ha but there are also reflection elements too. I always think a combination of both narrowband and broadband data suits this area well. A bit like M42 when people shoot it in narrowband, I think it loses some of its charm. I'm convinced m42 works best as a broadband target. 

4 hours ago, MKHACHFE said:

You know what? I've always thought that it's the whole image that is what's important. 

I never worry too much about imperfections, elongated stars at the edges etc ..

Granted, I'm still very much a beginner.

My whole body of work consists of images that don't do well under scrutiny 😂

I agree and don't normally obsess over star shapes too much, as long as they are round(ish) I'm happy. However, these are truely awful 😂

12 minutes ago, MKHACHFE said:

holy moly mate...stunning work 😲

Thank you, but it's definitely an image to be  appreciated by not zooming in 😂

11 hours ago, Chefgage said:

I might have to take a couple of sets of flats next time. I aim for an adu of about 30000. With my led light panel and l-enhance filter this gives me an exposure time of 400ms. My lights seem to calibrate fine at this exposure time (this is using the 294mc-pro).

Mentioned above at this low exposure time I might be limiting the amount I can stretch the image but my images seem to process ok (from my point if view). I might try taking two sets of flats and doing a side by side comparison using pixinsight (which is what I use for processing).

The issue I see though is exposing for a couple of seconds is going to give me a very hight adu value though isn't it??

I'm using APT and the flats aid and target an adu of 25000, with my L-eXtreme I usually get flats between 4-5 seconds. I then just do my dark flats at the same exposure time as the flats and it calibrates first time every time. I shoot flats/dark flats every imaging session as my equipment needs tearing down so don't know whether that's relevant. The 294MC Pro really is very capable for the price, but given no budget restraints then I probably would have gone for the 2600MC Pro. 

On 18/12/2022 at 14:05, Elp said:

The 294 you'll be in for a world of pain regarding flats calibration due to the sensor. The 533 would be a good choice if you can work around the square sensor. The 183 is still an excellent performer. What scope?

The 294MC Pro gets a lot of bashing for this and it's mostly unjustified. Mine has calibrated perfectly evertime, you just need to ensure your individual flats are over a few seconds long and jobs a good'un 😃

Following on from this thread:

Thought I'd try fiddling with the set up of the lens on the dslr adaptor to see if could improve the star shapes by taking some of the lens weight off the bayonet by packing out the space between the lens foot and dovetail. Well it did sod all 😂 more investigation required.

Not wanting to waste a clear night I just let it run anyway and ended up with 6.5 hours of 5 minute subs. 

Sigma 150mm F2.8 macro at F3.5

ZWO ASI294MC PRO 

HEQ5 Pro 

Star shapes are awful but this lens can't half collect photons 😃

This looks great, nicely done. Hoping to give this one a go next if the weather ever plays nice.

2 hours ago, Ratlet said:

Not sure if the orientation of the sensor relative to the dovetail, but the image looks to my untrained eye like it is in focus on the right and slowly drifts out of focus on the left.

I'd be inclined to say tilt is possibly your biggest issue.  It may even cause an apparent elongation of the stars due to it being defocused.

The short side of the sensor is facing the dovetail in this configuration which suggests that the weight of the lens may be the issue. I'll try bracing the lens against the dovetail so the bayonet isn't taking all the weight and see what impact that has. 🤞