Automation is not all it's cracked up to be ;-)

[steppenwolf]

So, at the simple click of the wrong button, I have just captured an exquisitely well tracked and centred 1200 second image of my focus star - Doh!

On a more positive note, it gave me an opportunity to check out the flatness of the field of view with my larger (APS C) imaging sensor and I have no complaints there: -

Esprit 150 ED/SXVF-M25C Field Curvature Plot

[Garethr]

Steve

 

Just spent 15 mins advising a newcomer to read your book and how you were a "God" when it came to imaging.

Hope he misses this post 

Gareth 

 

[Davey-T]

Captured a 30min sub of the focus star with 200 X 200 subframe on the other night, luckily I went out to check on how the first image for the night looked 

Dave

[wimvb]

Sometimes you make the wrong photons count. A while ago I lost my guide star when a cloud moved by. I now have a lovely stack of nothingness north of Cassiopeia to show for it.

[gnomus]

 Steve ...  you know of course that this could never have happened with SGP.....    

[steppenwolf]

21 hours ago, Garethr said:

Just spent 15 mins advising a newcomer to read your book and how you were a "God" when it came to imaging.

Hope he misses this post 

So do I

21 hours ago, Davey-T said:

Captured a 30min sub of the focus star with 200 X 200 subframe on the other night, luckily I went out to check on how the first image for the night looked 

Thank goodness it's not just me then ......

[steppenwolf]

21 hours ago, wimvb said:

Sometimes you make the wrong photons count. A while ago I lost my guide star when a cloud moved by. I now have a lovely stack of nothingness north of Cassiopeia to show for it.

Great wordplay, Wim! Nothingness north of Cassiopeia could be a film title

2 hours ago, gnomus said:

Steve ...  you know of course that this could never have happened with SGP.....    

Now look here, Steve the Younger, ......................

[Magnus_e]

I spent a night of imaging 4h 30m of ngc1499 out of focus from my summer built observatory!

As I was new to the software and camera I thought it was the autostreach bloating the stars, and autofocus did complete.....

[Davey-T]

9 minutes ago, steppenwolf said:

Thank goodness it's not just me then ......

Curious thing that Autosave in Maxim takes over all the camera control settings but not the subframe ?

Dave

[steppenwolf]

Just now, Davey-T said:

Curious thing that Autosave in Maxim takes over all the camera control settings but not the subframe ?

I'd love to be able to blame MaxIm or indeed CCD Commander for my faux pas but I can't. CCD Commander does not work directly with Cartes du Ciel so if I want to transfer an RA and DEC into the 'Move To' action, I have to align my mount (or a virtual mount if the object is below my current horizon) with the object and then tell CCD Commander to 'Move to' the current location thus locking the coordinates into CCD Commander - it's quicker and easier than it sounds! However, I located my focus star and copied its coordinates to CCD Commander then forgot that I hadn't slewed to my imaging object and copied the same coordinates into the 'Move To' action for the imaging object grrrr - like a good joke, you really needed to be there

I'm currently telling myself that I won't make that mistake again but confidence is not high

[steppenwolf]

14 minutes ago, Magnus_e said:

I spent a night of imaging 4h 30m of ngc1499 out of focus from my summer built observatory!

Now that is very annoying. There are so many traps to fall into - I blame the weather here in the UK for my sot of mistakes as you practically have to relearn what to do for each session as they are so far apart!

[Magnus_e]

6 minutes ago, steppenwolf said:

Now that is very annoying. There are so many traps to fall into - I blame the weather here in the UK for my sot of mistakes as you practically have to relearn what to do for each session as they are so far apart!

It's like that here in Norway too. The other night had a clear skies forecast for the entire night, but my observatory was blinded by local fog! I guess fog is not clouds, but they could add a warning

[Davey-T]

25 minutes ago, steppenwolf said:

Now that is very annoying. There are so many traps to fall into - I blame the weather here in the UK for my sot of mistakes as you practically have to relearn what to do for each session as they are so far apart!

I blame old age 

Dave

[steppenwolf]

3 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

I blame old age 

Hmmm, that too!

[Scott]

13 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

I blame old age 

Dave

 

9 minutes ago, steppenwolf said:

Hmmm, that too!

Not me, I'm just thick

[Garethr]

My favourites are 

1. forget to remove the focus mask

2. Take the cover off the guide scope 

3. The worst,  I hadn't realised i had changed the APT settings on image review from "fit to screen to 1-1  spent nearly 2 hrs mucking about with focus and plate solver because the image on the screen was nothing like a galaxy I was supposed to be imaging.  As Steve says it was one click away to resolve the problem but I hadn't realised I had changed it.  This was at a dark site I visit once or twice a year to use their kit and this was the only clear night that week .  

Onward and upward hopefully

 

Gareth 

 

[PatrickGilliland]

We have all been there, buttons and text boxes all get tripled checked here after many similar experiences.

Nice flat field though  

Paddy

[ollypenrice]

On a similar note I once discovered that, in Artemis Capture, the use of the sequencer over-rides all the settings from the regular capture window except, ah, the sub frame selector for focusing on one star. Well, it was a nice star, nicely framed in the middle and, since the image was only about 5 pixels by 5 pixels, I felt I didn't really need to bother with flats when it came to stacking the three hour run....

lly

[steppenwolf]

5 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

I felt I didn't really need to bother with flats when it came to stacking the three hour run....

Love it!

[DaveS]

The other night I wondered why PinPoint wouldn't solve the local pointing model images, put it down to them being out of focus and carried on for shorter subs.

It was only later that I realised I hadn't updated the 'scope / CCD setting for the 80mm f/4.4 and ASI 1600 (Yes, I know it's CMOS) so PinPoint thought it was solving the 130mm f/7 and SX694.

Dur.....

[wimvb]

On 2017-01-24 at 23:47, steppenwolf said:

So, at the simple click of the wrong button, I have just captured an exquisitely well tracked and centred 1200 second image of my focus star - Doh!

On a more positive note, it gave me an opportunity to check out the flatness of the field of view with my larger (APS C) imaging sensor and I have no complaints there: -

Esprit 150 ED/SXVF-M25C Field Curvature Plot

 

51 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

On a similar note I once discovered that, in Artemis Capture, the use of the sequencer over-rides all the settings from the regular capture window except, ah, the sub frame selector for focusing on one star. Well, it was a nice star, nicely framed in the middle and, since the image was only about 5 pixels by 5 pixels, I felt I didn't really need to bother with flats when it came to stacking the three hour run....

lly

"Lessons from the masters"  

[iapa]

On 25/01/2017 at 21:08, Davey-T said:

I blame old age 

Dave

+2 on that one

[iapa]

18 hours ago, PatrickGilliland said:

We have all been there, buttons and text boxes all get tripled checked here after many similar experiences.

You can check buttons, text boxes, balance, lens covers until you ar blue in the face, and still miss something.

I know, this happens everytme I set up :(

 

[mhard26339]

I am really, and I mean REALLY pleased reading this thread in that it is not just me, I once came home from Spain in frustration just to fix my rig convinced that it needed my presence; one tick in a box and all was fixed (need your emoton of head banging here Steve) Obviously other work was done but I ask you!!

 

Regards

 

Mike

[PatrickGilliland]

35 minutes ago, iapa said:

You can check buttons, text boxes, balance, lens covers until you ar blue in the face, and still miss something.

I know, this happens everytme I set up

 

 

OK here is the secret (and an admission of aging!)

I have checklist - both in the Obs for when I need to do stuff there and in my study that I follow without fail.  You only make a mistake once after that it's your own fault for not checking the list.  Seriously though, simple checklist, reduction in almost all problems.  Would recommend everyone has one.  When I set up each night this was a critical, had a laminated version on my outdoor table and just followed the steps.  With full set up I could be up and running in 10 minutes.

 

Of course still prone to the daft errors, at obs the other day and wiped some post imaging dew of the lens, then forgot to clean.  Lost all of last nights data as the dew had just dried as a smear!  Was not happy ........