Making Progress

[Randalloverby]

Weatherman said we had a couple of days of clear weather so I decided to take advantage of it and setup, low and behold I got my first 3 minute unguided exposure, no star trails and it looked just perfect ( for me anyway) so I'm like, I will be out here all night...then the clouds rolled in. Sooo, I tried again the following night and nothing seemed to work out. I did the polar alignment twice but my tracking was terrible. Frustration set in and it was getting cold so called it a night and as I was breaking everything down I noticed I did not tighten my mount up tight enough, hence the poor tracking...then the clouds rolled in. LOL, oh well. I'm gonna give it another shot the next chance I get and try to hit the 3 minute exposure again. Merry Christmas everyone...or Happy Holidays.

[cloudsweeper]

And a Merry Christmas to you too!  It's great to make progress - a lifelong process, I reckon.  As for clouds, well a few days ago I was determined to see some clusters and hung around for two hours until there was a suitable, brief gap in the clouds.  And it was worth the wait!

Doug.

[alacant]

8 hours ago, Randalloverby said:

I did not tighten my mount up

Hi and Merry Xmas too:) Yeah, I know the feeling. Dunno. Some sort of checklist before you go for the first frame? Big letters, readable at a distance. In the dark....? But good in a way that you know what caused the error. 

[cjdawson]

Merry Christmas.

 

Every time you setup the scope you will learn something.  Now you know what caused the problem, so next time it is something you will know to check.

what did your 3 min sub look like?   Pictures or it didn't happen

[Randalloverby]

7 hours ago, cjdawson said:

Merry Christmas.

 

Every time you setup the scope you will learn something.  Now you know what caused the problem, so next time it is something you will know to check.

what did your 3 min sub look like?   Pictures or it didn't happen

 

My plan was to get several hours of data with M42 but it wasn't high enough at the time so slewed over to M31 and with the 180 sec subs I decided to stick with it, that's when the high level clouds rolled in. Here is one 180 sec sub @ 800iso. I did add a little saturation with PS but that's it. There is a possibility of good weather this Thursday so I may try again then. Keeping my fingers crossed.

[Randalloverby]

7 hours ago, alacant said:

Hi and Merry Xmas too:) Yeah, I know the feeling. Dunno. Some sort of checklist before you go for the first frame? Big letters, readable at a distance. In the dark....? But good in a way that you know what caused the error. 

I probably do need some sort of checklist. I was more focused on the technical stuff and goofed up on the basics, but like you said, I know now and you can sure bet it won't happen again.