Imaging is spoiling my enjoyment - Back to visual

[ollypenrice]

please don't use expressions like that on a family forum Olly.

Wot, 'astrophotography?' You're right. No need to call the divorce lawyers from the four corners of the earth to the richest pickings since Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor...

Olly

[Moonshane]

ha ha

it's amazing how widely split people are with imaging, either loving it completely or really not liking it in the vast majority of cases.

[Whippy]

Have you thought of planetary imaging? Much less hassle. Equally rewarding (for me anyway)

Spot on, compared to DSO imaging it's a 5 minute job and the few times I've had a go it's been immense fun and very immediate. So much so it's something I'm hoping to do much more of this coming season. Enjoyment is everything for a hobby .

Tony..

[sgazer]

forgot to mention the other advantage imaging; for the remaining 29 days of the month when it's cloudy, you at least have some form of astro image to play with 'till the next clear night. Plenty of time for processing and trying different techniques. I often revisit old data to try something different when I'm bored or during extended periods of cloudyness.

[ollypenrice]

I'm not sure that a majority don't enjoy it. There is not all that much used imaging kit for sale second hand, I don't think, and imagers outnumber visual observers what, eight to one, as far as my clients are concerned? That's why I got involved in imaging in the first place. I was really quite reluctant, not being a great computer buff. However, it has become my passion for sure. I can't forget the first time the wispy outer nebulosity of M42 appeared on the computer screen. Breathtaking.

Olly

[BinocularSky]

However, when it comes to delicacy of flavour, texture and exotic nuances of delight... fish beats meat ten times over.

Marinade your meat!

...Fugu fish. Very tasty... but the ovaries of an ovulating female are 500X more deadly than potassium cyanide per unit mass.

Ah, but Fugu has Tetrodotoxin, not KCN!

Back on topic: I might consider going back to astrophotography if I thought there was the slightest chance I'd actually discover something useful, but I get far more pleasure from (a) visual obs with a big binoc and ( looking at the images of others, than I do from all the stuffing about capturing and processing my own.

[whirlpool5194]

I vividly remember seeing m42 appear on my mates laptop via his Atik 2hs, after that I was hooked!! I think you just need to do what "you" want and enjoy, its a hobby afterall...

Wp

[Helen]

Solar is fun - and its easy to do both visual and imaging with not much kit. My solar kit gets 20 times the usage of my other kit, and its soooooo much less hassle. Really enjoyable, and the pics can be stunning too. (I've only had one picture published in Sky at Night and it was a solar shot. My Dad asked me how long it had taken to take - knowing how long DSO stuff takes - so was amazed when I said 'about 45 secs'!)

Helen

[astro mick]

Hi.

I can fully understand your views,as always in the UK the main problem is our weather,it leaves us with so little time to follow our hobby.

If we had more clear sky,s you may feel a little different,but alas!!!

Anyway the best of luck with what ever you finally decide.

Mick.

[Luke]

I can see why it's not for everyone, there have been nights when things have gone wrong or the clouds have rolled in when it's been pretty demotivating!

I love both imaging and visual, but it's more the imaging for me, I am still astonished that it's possible to take pics like these.

That said I didn't do as much visual last year as I'd hoped, and that does bug me. The plan was for the imaging to go nice and smoothly and take images hours on its own once set up while I have fun with the dob.

But things went wrong, I'd get star trails, my PC would blow up, etc!

As we come into the new season, I'm optimistic that this time I really will be able to spend a decent amount of time at the dob, I was getting quite a lot quicker at setting up the imaging kit in May.

The messing about with imaging makes me appreciate what a joy it is to use a low hassle dob, so I love the dob even more now if anything, but I will always be drawn to the dark side of imaging!

Best of luck getting the thrill of the visual back!

[philj]

I do a bit of both. I was visual only for years and then like you started to try imaging with a dslr, then the imaging side bit deep and I built an obs with fixed rig all set up and ready to go.

Once I had the imaging rig tamed I was then able to leave it to its own devices taking subs and do visual with another scope outside the obs.

Sometimes though I just forget about the imaging and do visual only and love it. However last weekend was 3 months since I did any imaging so the sunday night I enjoyed imaging only, watching the phd graph can be mesmerising:D

At one point I did think about going back to visual only. But then I realised I like astronomy, all parts of it, visual, imaging, planets, dso's, double stars et al and I didnt want to close one aspect of it off.

I would advise dont sell the imaging gear,keep it and use it for visual a few months, then as the darker nights come in you may feel a bit more like imaging again.

Philj