Horse head at the races

[gajjer]

Hi all

well it's race week here in cloudy Cheltenham and to stick with the theme of the gee gees I present my image of the horsehead and flame.
I can't say it was one of my better nights. Orion was floating over the warm glow of Cheltenham and it wasn't as clear as I would have liked it.
Given the weather we have been having it was likely to be my last shot at it before it disappears behind the conifers. I wasn't really expecting it to be
clear enough but a couple of test shots showed I could get 4mins without white out.
So quickly set up the laptop outside and fitted the guide scope. Fired up PHD and we are off. Oh joy a message from Mr Windows pops up.
Windows will shut down in 2 min 30 sec. WHAT!!!!! You're having a laugh aren't you! And true to it's word - it did, followed by a very rude word
from yours truly - 4 letters - ends in k.

Deep breaths - we can deal with this. During the next few minutes of more mumbled profanities, space seemed to speed up as the horsehead seemed to be galloping
to the final furlong. And we are going again. In doors for a cup of tea and kill some brain cells while I watch some drivel on television.

After 30 mins pop out just to see the camera battery is still ok. Yep no probs.
So after another hour I'm packing up. First thing I do is disconnect the camera and download the images.
On inspection I have about 20 frames of 4 mins. Click on one and have a look. NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! At some point the PC had stopped guiding and shut down!
So I only managed 8 frames - two of which had plane trails across them. Sighhh.

So I suffered for this one.

Scope was a SW 500mm with field flattener, EOS1100 modified, 7 frames stacked in DSS 4min at 800ASA, 2 cups of tea. Final fiddling in Photoshop. Actually think

it was a moderately successful night. That is how low my expectations have fallen!!

cheers

gaj

[laser_jock99]

A worthy effort - Windows automatic updates always occur at the worst moments!

[wxsatuser]

Thats not to bad considering the conditions and short total exposure.

[kalasinman]

Change updates to "Notify". Nice job considering.

[DaveS]

Blummin' Windross and its automatic updates  . Last time it did that I told it to wait 4 hours, by which time I'd finished my run and shut down anyway.

I also changed the power regime on my LT to make sure it wouldn't shut down on me. To be safe I run it off the mains.

Oh, yeah, forgot to say, Jolly good show!

[kalasinman]

Click on the windows icon. At the bottom enter windows update in the search box. Click on windows update. on the left click on change settings. Near the top click on the box with settings choices and change from automatically to check for updates but let me choose.....then you won't ever be interrupted by updates while imaging.

[gajjer]

Thank you all for your advice and comments. Much appreciated. I look forward to what gremlins await me on my next 'night of adventure'.

cheers

gaj