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Imaging is bad for your health..

Coco

By Coco
in Observing - Discussion

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Coco

Coco

Posted
Posted

Very close to chucking the imaging in for good...

Sick to my back teeth with clouds and bad weather... had miles of fun tonight with cheap 15x70 binoculars, thought to myself what am I trying to do here? wind myself up or something?..

Tonight saw M27 , THE RING NEBULAR! , M11 Duck, M26 , M15 , M2, M31 &33! even M82 & 81 ! could not see m101 & 51 with binoculars :)... I have 4k sat in the obs winding me up! ;):mad::p

Getting data is hard enough then Ive got to faf about developing it, massively Photoshopped and tweaked to death :rolleyes: I cant remember the last successful imaging session... it was last winter 2010!

Tonight if I had a 14"+ dob and some top end eyepieces I'd have really enjoyed myself..

Am seriously contemplating selling it all an importing an obsession 15" with tracking or similar.. I get to do Astronomy at my pace..

Sorry to rant..

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ncjunk

ncjunk

Posted
Posted

Dont know your setup but an heq5 with an ed80 for imaging fun

Then a dob for mucking around with.

I know what you mean though, i just had everything working on my ed80 and i have started a fresh with a c11. And yet the best night recently has been looking througb an f5 8" newt on an eq6 at the local astro clubs reach out seminar. M27, m13 and m57... Great fun.

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Coco

Coco

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sounds like you had a bad night guy !

How about keeping it simple for imaging !

Why not just observe for a while before deciding to sell up the imaging mullarky ?

Nadeem.

Am brassed off Nads... I know its still August but .... :)

While at the lakes this weekend we had 2 hours per night of outstanding clear sky, Our Milky Way over our caravan was breath taking.. Even my missus was amazed.. :rolleyes: .

I cant be dragging my gear up there at the weekend.. beside.. 2 hours is not going to get much data after setting up.. etc... A dob would be ok.. ;)

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kev 102 42

kev 102 42

Posted
Posted

Iv got myself into some rite states coz i cant get out with my scopes,that WO i bought off you Guy iv not even looked through it yet,im hoping to get out saturday with the welsh mob just so someone can help me with my mount and some cracking company....kev

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Coco

Coco

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Iv got myself into some rite states coz i cant get out with my scopes,that WO i bought off you Guy iv not even looked through it yet,im hoping to get out saturday with the welsh mob just so someone can help me with my mount and some cracking company....kev

Crikey Kev! that was months ago! :rolleyes:

Hope the guy's can help you out and the skies clear... ive had some great wide fields through that little WO Petz..

.

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CGolder

CGolder

Posted
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I chucked in imaging over the summer, i thought to myself.... i get stressed trying to get it all workingand I can't stand processing.... i havent looked back and i am happier noe for sure.... just make sure u dont regret it and buy it all back lol

Sent from my A101IT using Tapatalk

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

Posted
Posted

Ouch. What about an Astrotrac and widefield for the caravan?

I was totally fed up with Derbyshire cloud and was glad to leave it behind, though there are things I miss, of course.

Cheer up, you'll get some good winter skies and some early starts.

Olly

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RikM

RikM

Posted
Posted

I was feeling the same so bought a 10" Dob for looking through. No set up time, no faffing around. Big enough to be useful yet small enough to fit in the car if I want to get away to somewhere dark. Easy enough to swing around and peep through gaps in the clouds. Hours of fun and no stress.

It also gives me something to do while the subs are rolling in on the other scope. Best of both worlds.

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steppenwolf

steppenwolf

Posted
Posted

I too feel your pain, Guy and although it is only August as you say, this time of the year can still be great for imaging BUT not this year. I have a brand new set of gear in the observatory as you know and I have thus far had considerably more pleasure looking at it than through it, in fact, I brought some of it inside last night just for that purpose - how sad is that.

The best night I have had all year was last Friday when I did capture an image whilst browsing the skies with my Mum's old 10 x 50 Carl Zeiss Jena binoculars so although I certainly won't give up, I'm too passionate about it, I might place it on the back burner for a while.

We imagers must be nuts ....

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GeeO

GeeO

Posted
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I feel for ya, it must be hellava frustrating alright having all that lovely gear with these skies. As a noob they're putting me off investing in even a half decent scope.

"could not see m101 & 51 with binoculars :mad:"

Should M101 be visible through binos? I spent about an hour searching for it last night through the 20 x 50's without success. I reckon I've got about mag 6 visible to the north from my back door above about 35° so expected to see something......

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

Posted
Posted
I have a brand new set of gear in the observatory as you know and I have thus far had considerably more pleasure looking at it than through it, in fact, I brought some of it inside last night just for that purpose - how sad is that.

Not sad at all! Perfectly understandable and a fine choice of evening entertainment. You are to be congratulated on having sophisticated taste, dear boy. Give the Feathertouch a tickle from me!

Olly

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Earl

Earl

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I have spent this cloudy time getting the setup working to how I want, I have two potential nights according the the fib office, we will wait and see.

I just want to get my flat field sorted this week, if i can do that im happy.

However I am having a night mare with stacking and processing, that is doin my head in big time !

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Helen

Helen

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I'm going through the same too Guy. Do I stop and try something else imaging-wise or persevere and risk wasting more clear nights. At the moment I'm up for persevering, because otherwise it'll never get better. But I think having a decent easy to use visual set up, so that I have the option of just enjoying the skies, is the way to go.

Helen

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Macavity

Macavity

Posted
Posted

Know the feeling - Even with VIDEO astronomy. And, if you're not in the "first bloom of youth" (LOL) quite physically demanding as well as mentally frustrating? But still I persist, despite the (overloaded) netbook stalling, the tripwire tangle of cables, the (latest) "Absinth" (qv) skies etc. And I STILL have to optimise polar alignment, new Newt collimation as well... :rolleyes:

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Beulah

Beulah

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And I thought setting up a scope, getting it collimated, getting the cold weather gear on, cleaning the EPs and studying the map, sorting out the garden furniture to accommodate coffee, maps and dim red torch, only to be met, for the fourth consecutive night with a rapidly opaque sky was enough to increase hypertension!

I only get a glimpse of how hard imaging is from reading posts on this site, but can only say; don't give up.

You never know...you might get a string of crystal clear nights to get the data in (the last time we had this, Peter (psychobilly) built up astonishing pictures of star fields, so it gives you an idea of how long it's been since we've had weather conducive to our hobby.)

The question is, if we ever get those nights again, will you regret selling up your gear?

Don't be in a rush to sell - buy an additional observer's scope if you can - you can always sell your imaging stuff at a later date and have some extra moolah...

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Psychobilly

Psychobilly

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Posted

You never know...you might get a string of crystal clear nights to get the data in (the last time we had this, Peter (psychobilly) built up astonishing pictures of star fields, so it gives you an idea of how long it's been since we've had weather conducive to our hobby.)

That's so long ago I had forgotten I did anything "productive" :rolleyes::o:o

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pete_l

pete_l

Posted
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Very close to chucking the imaging in for good....

If it's any consolation, I confidently predict that September will have more clear night skies - unless it's cloudy of course :rolleyes:

Why's that? Well last July was bad, just like this July and last August was a lot like this month: some quite cold days, none that really counted as "hot" and lots of overcast nights, roughly as many as we've had this month. June of last year and Jun eof this year were similar, too.

So given we've had a run of 3 months where this year's summer has been a lot like last summer with some luck this September will be like last September, too. Then there were 11 days when it was clear at 23:00 - at least where I live, and October was quite promising as well.

So I wouldn't go selling off all that imaging gear just yet - that's a sure way to guarantee long periods of clear weather.

If you want a shufti at the records, here's the number of times each month that the sky was clear at the given hour in South Bucks

.........-- Single hours -

.........19 20 21 22 23 00

2010_Mar: 5 5 7 8 8 6

2010_Apr: 0 0 14 14 16 16

2010_May: 0 0 0 14 12 13

2010_Jun: 0 0 0 12 13 14

2010_Jul: 0 0 0 6 5 10

2010_Aug: 0 0 5 7 6 8

2010_Sep: 0 7 7 9 11 10

2010_Oct: 8 8 6 11 9 8

2010_Nov: 4 6 1 4 4 1

2010_Dec: 4 4 4 3 5 2

2011_Jan: 5 6 4 3 3 4

2011_Feb: 3 4 3 4 4 2

2011_Mar: 11 13 10 12 11 11

2011_Apr: 0 0 15 15 14 13

2011_May: 0 0 0 11 11 13

2011_Jun: 0 0 0 13 14 16

2011_Jul: 0 0 0 5 6 8

2011_Aug: 0 0 4 5 9 6

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