Doh!

[martin_h]

If I had a brain I would be dangerous to me and others!

Clear sky forcast for part of the night last night, so duly set the gear up, whilst waiting for dark I decided to do some flats in anticipation of the forthcomming images...all ok so far.

Flats all done, line up scope on target, guiding engaged, nip in for cuppa.....nip out again to find cloud....typical. Still forcasting clear tho so decided to give it 1/2 hour to sort its self out. Next trip outside finds it tipping it down with rain....ARRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After slamming roof shut on the obs I set to drying the lenses on scopes, thus rendering the earlier flats usless, so as not to waste an entire night I make a new set of flats to go with my nice clean scope lenses.

This morning, for want of something to do decided to clean the CCD sensor.......yes! Another set of flats renderd usless....... so, for the 3rd time of asking a new, new,new set of flats are being produced.....

Ho hum.

[Austin]

I feel your pain Martin!! it has been at least two and a half months since I have been able to get out due to weather and other unforseen obstacles. I too was doing a bit of curtain twitching last night, and as a promising clear patch was coming my way I decided to get the light bucket out......... second trip down the stairs with kit....yep! clouds!!!!!! aaaarrrggghh Hey ho, thats the joys of being an amateur astronomer

[FarSide]

I've done that so many times that you just have to laugh. You nip in for a minute, a minute! And the clouds roll in. I swear is an astronomers curse.

[Carbon Brush]

I stupidly believed last night's forecast. I had (weeks back it seems) put a dual scope setup on the obsy mount and hoped to give it a first run.

As the sky darkened, I managed to get the finder aligned with one scope. Then I started looking at mount alignment, having disturbed it (weeks earlier). Then the clouds started to show.

Does managing to see the Mizar/Alcor pair and one star between count as a good night these days?

[umadog]

Night's where I can split the summer triangle are reasonable.

[Davey-T]

Had a few clear patches last night but couldn't do any imaging 'cause of the big bright moon so spent an hour or so looking at the moon, really good " seeing " by the way.

Dave

[Ganymede12]

I don't know anything about "serious" imaging so I have to ask, what are flats?

(Not the house kind)

[martin_h]

I don't know anything about "serious" imaging so I have to ask, what are flats?

(Not the house kind)

At its most basic - flats are an image of all the dust and marks in the image train - from the scope lens through to the camera chip, this image is then used in processing to remove said marks and dust from your intended image.

[ronaldo999]

roll on the long winter nights that will hopefully bring clear skies to the country. we can only live and hope

[Ganymede12]

At its most basic - flats are an image of all the dust and marks in the image train - from the scope lens through to the camera chip, this image is then used in processing to remove said marks and dust from your intended image.

Thanks you. Someday that will be useful!

[Dunkster]

At its most basic - flats are an image of all the dust and marks in the image train - from the scope lens through to the camera chip, this image is then used in processing to remove said marks and dust from your intended image.

Thanks - that's interesting! So you leave the cap on the scope and capture images for the same duration as if you were capturing real sky?

[martin_h]

Thanks - that's interesting! So you leave the cap on the scope and capture images for the same duration as if you were capturing real sky?

No, that would be a "dark" frame.........a flat is taken with a "flat" illuminated background.........some people use a T-shirt stretched over the scope pointing at the twilight sky, or, as I do, pointing at an illuminated flat panel............"EL panel"

[Dunkster]

Eek dark and flat frames Thanks martin_h, so much to learn, so little time

[Monty]

Eek dark and flat frames Thanks martin_h, so much to learn, so little time

With this weather you have plenty of time... Trust me I'm an amateur astronomer!

[Luke]

Last night I had the bright idea to disconnect the camera from the laptop then use a timer remote to get it to take an hour of darks instead of leaving it on the mount for that, so I could pack the gear away. Next time I will put an SD card in the camera first...