Having Observation Anxiety

[revpatrickchand]

Hello all!

I am head over heels for this hobby. I have been doing observing/astrophotgraphy for about 1 year. Any night I have permission from my wife to stare at the heavens I get excited and anxiety.

My telescope is manual point(reason being, I want to learn to navigate the night sky on my own plus I have not built an automated system yet). I use a cannabalized gearhead webcam on my 8" Dob I built. My anxiety comes from the fact once my rig is up and I am aiming at Jupiter I play hell to optimize my settings on Sharpcap to capture a prime image. Then of course I start to tweak the capture with Regi6 and/or CS5. I have 1 Terra of data that I cannot improve the image. My anxiety is compounded by the fact I see these images from people that state "this is my first image" and mine still look like poo to me. Anyone up to the challenge of trying to polish up my data, please send me an email.

Rock On

[TonyM]

Hi Patrick

If it is any consolation, I share your pain.

I think it is only the lucky (or talented) few who can post a brilliant first image. The rest of us just keep quiet - the silent majority

[Telrad]

Patrick, firstly, what are you trying to image? and do you have an EQ mount?