Tonight's the night...

[GlassWalker]

3 astro and one normal weather forecast all say it's going to be clear tonight. I've got the kit outside cooling. Batteries are charged. It's almost perfect, with a few small clouds that are expected to clear later. Too perfect... so... what's going to go wrong?

[Capricorn]

Family and friends turn up unexpectedly?

Tsunami, tornado, flash flood and earthquake passed through my mind, not high on the probability however.

Suppose that a power cut wouldn't stop you as you mention "batteries charged".

The Mayan end of the world isn't until sometime in December, unless they got their calender wrong.

As you say weather sites clearly state "Clear" on them.

Any steps or cables you could trip over on the way in or out requireing a quick trip to the hospital?

Wife/GF/Partner in a murderous mood for you not spending time with them?

Meteor strick, now there is a possibility and an ironic one, be careful of meteors.

You sure it is clear in Swindon?

Lived south of there, (just) Wroughton, for 10 years and all I seem to recall is rain, rain and more rain.

[kirkster501]

3 astro and one normal weather forecast all say it's going to be clear tonight. I've got the kit outside cooling. Batteries are charged. It's almost perfect, with a few small clouds that are expected to clear later. Too perfect... so... what's going to go wrong?

The T ring adapter will be loose and wont attatch to the camera body. Happened to the other night after half an hour settign up five miles from home.

[Capricorn]

Don't know about Swindon but it's cold out there.

Thought of another if you are imaging: Huge laser show across the whole sky until midnight from the County Ground.

[GlassWalker]

What went wrong? Me.

After 45 mins of faffing around, I'm finally setup. Some new basic errors today. I went straight into DSLR H-alpha imaging on the Veil. I hadn't done this directly before, usually doing OIII first as it's easier to see. But I got enough OIII last time so now to concentrate on Ha, and maybe SII if I fancy a change. First problem, I can't find anything to focus on! I normally use bright stars. First one : Altair. Can't find it on camera. After a while, I gave up and moved to Vega. That's better. I can now see a faint red spot. Sorted. Now to aim... I've been lazy and never tried to get EQmod/CDC working, relying on manually pointing. Never had a problem until tonight, but since even a modded DSLR seems less sensitive to Ha than OIII, I just couldn't find it. Fine, rip out the filter and... remember why I do narrowband! Eventually I had to resort to using an OIII filter to line up, before swapping back to Ha. A quick re-check of focus later, and away I go.

If nothing else goes wrong, at least I don't have anything to do for the next couple hours or so