Waiting time between exposures

[emyliano2000]

45 minutes ago, wimvb said:

I apologise if I gave that impression, that was absolutely not intended.

Ah, you don't have to apologise. I didn't take it as an insult. Sometimes I really do not see things that are in front of me.? 

I'm gonna take my stuff out now to set them up and give it a try.

[Astrofriend]

About waiting time, it depends of what I'm doing.

1.

When I use my portable mount I don't have a computer with me. I use an intervallometer.

Example 60 seconds exposure

Mirrorlock delay zero if intervallometer

Delay for storing the image, 10 seconds

Total delay worst case 10 seconds, exposure time efficency 87%

 

2.

Timelapse photographing over long time and big temperature variation, then maybe I do an internal camera noise reduction.

Example 30 seconds exposure

Mirrorlock delay 3 seconds (fullframe camera) or zero if wide field lens

Delay for storing the image, 10 seconds and 30 seconds for noise reduction

Total delay worst case 43 seconds, exposure time efficency 41%

 

3.

Computer controlled with dithering.

Example 60 seconds exposure

Mirrorlock delay 3 seconds (fullframe camera)

Delay for storing the image, 10 seconds

15 to 30 seconds delay to let the auto guiding stabilize after dithering

Total delay worst case 33 seconds, exposure time efficency 64%

In this case with dithering I don't have to take dark and bias calibration images and save a lot of time

 

Always keep the camera as cool it can be, shut off everything not needed, shut off display and never use liveview, it could raise the camera temperature by 20 degrees or more, that take a long time to cool down, 30 minutes maybe.

As written here earlier, check the exif data for camera house temperature (only possilby with Canon I think), I normally rename my image files with the camera temperature, then it's easy to erase the images where the camera temperature has not been equlized with the sorrounding temperature. You can read here how I do that:

http://astrofriend.eu/astronomy/tutorials/tutorial-darkframe-dslr-canon/tutorial-darkframe-dslr-canon.html

 

If mirror look is necesary? Look at this:

/Lars

 

[iapa]

On 01/01/2017 at 21:06, emyliano2000 said:

What about mirror lockup? Should I activate it?

Definitely.

I'm happy  prefer to get a couple fewer images a night and build up over several nights. At 300s exposures, for my Canon 600d at prime focus I use 10s for mirror lock top to allow things to settle - that mirror can move hard - then 50s between exposures.

I saw something that recommended 10s - it was one of the stickies in SGL forum covering PHD guiding I was reading earlier today.

That's with 8" reflector and SCT on a fairly solid mount; CGEM-DX