What do you do while you wait?

[mikey2000]

A simple question! What do you do while you wait?

 

I'm new to this 'proper imaging' business so I can't help keeping a close eye on the incoming images, stacked with DSS_live and I can't help but look at how PHD2 is doing.  It's all set up outside but remote viewing with VNC let's me supervise from indoors.  Therefore, in my excitment to see what's coming in, I'm barely watching TV, just looking at a PHD2 realtime trace...

 

It seems to be going well.  What do you do?  Put the kettle on?  How about at those remote dark sites?

[kendg]

If the night is nice, 2 words "Look Up" and if I remembered to bring the binos then that's a plus. Never ceases to amaze. 

Now nice means different things in different places. For me it's being dressed appropriately and having a nice lawn chair to sit on (and a cold beer or hot toddy depending on the season).

[frugal]

Tonight, I was out with the camera on a tripod trying to do arty landscape things with the moon. Whilst the camera was taking a series of photos with the intervalometer, I was taking advantage of the dry ground to lie on my back and just stare up at the stars.

When I am imaging from the garden; if it is a work day the following day, I go to bed and cross my fingers. If it is not, then I am often out with the binos and a thermos of tea, but quite often I just sit on the bench with my head resting on the wall and look up at the stars.

[mikey2000]

An excellent answer!   I am getting so tied up in the ins and outs of taking pics that I forget the pleasure of simply *looking*.  I will put a Binocular request on my birthday list

 

in the meantime, while my camera is busy gathering photons, I sometimes catch up o washing up, ironing school uniform and general box-set fun.

 

i would spend more time outside, if I had the time :-)

[frugal]

My current pet project is to improve the number of constellations and stars I can recognise by eye. You don't even need a pair of binos for that, just one of the many star guide apps on your phone.

[ollypenrice]

I just made a bacon sandwich...

Olly 

[johnfosteruk]

2 hours ago, frugal said:

My current pet project is to improve the number of constellations and stars I can recognise by eye. You don't even need a pair of binos for that, just one of the many star guide apps on your phone.

or a planisphere!!

[RichLD]

At my dark site I alternate between looking at the sky through my binos, being a human sheild between incoming headlights/headtorches (it's a car park in the Peak District) and my imaging rig, answering questions posed by interested members of the public, checking my guiding graph and drinking coffee from a flask.

 

 

 

[ronin]

Binoculars.

Or wonder what those 2 eyes are attached to that is watching me - have a couple of bright red light torches and if you shine them around you often get the reflection of eyes looking at you from the distance.

[RichLD]

Oh, forgot to mention averting my vision away from inappropriate human behaviour in cars, where the occupants obviously believe you can't see them (I hope!)  

[Ouroboros]

I only get the chance to set up for imaging a handful of times a year. So I stay close to the kit and watch the data come in.  Setting up from scratch each time,  it's always a different technical adventure. Anything and everything can and does go wrong. Sometimes I wander about outside looking upwards with the bins. Sometimes I return to the kitchen to make a coffee or a snack. But mostly I sit in the shed, keeping an eye on things, listening to the radio and using my iPad to visit SGL. 

[alacant]

30 minutes ago, RichLD said:

inappropriate human behaviour

LOL- Of course, sitting next to a tripod in the middle of a field at 3 in the morning watching a graph on a laptop is appropriate!

[Stu]

7 hours ago, kendg said:

f the night is nice, 2 words "Look Up" and if I remembered to bring the binos then that's a plus. Never ceases to amaze. 

Absolutely! Don't waste the skies looking at your laptop trace, look up at the skies!

[RichLD]

5 minutes ago, alacant said:

LOL- Of course, sitting next to a tripod in the middle of a field at 3 in the morning watching a graph on a laptop is appropriate!

Haha! This is especially true when you consider I'm generally wearing a black balaclava with eye holes that looks like a special services one.

I'll get me coat...

[Pete Presland]

Binoculars  for me as well, love just browsing the heavens.

[tomato]

+1 for enjoying the night sky while the subs are running, and I do a mental punch of the air each time one is safely saved to the hard disk. It feels like I've won a minor battle with the U.K. Weather and all the gremlins your rig can throw at you.

[RichLD]

Just now, tomato said:

+1 for enjoying the night sky while the subs are running, and I do a mental punch of the air each time one is safely saved to the hard disk. It feels like I've won a minor battle with the U.K. Weather and all the gremlins your rig can throw at you.

Couldn't have put it better! 

[ollypenrice]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

Absolutely! Don't waste the skies looking at your laptop trace, look up at the skies!

Even when your guide trace looks like this? 

Be reasonable, a man has a right to be mesmerized on occasion!  

Joking of course, look up!

Olly

[RichLD]

1 minute ago, ollypenrice said:

Even when your guide trace looks like this? 

Be reasonable, a man has a right to be mesmerized on occasion!  

Joking of course, look up!

Olly

That's a thing of beauty, in my dreams! 

Go on, rub it in why don't you! 

 

[tomato]

Sorry folks, I would keep staring at that trace?

[ollypenrice]

36 minutes ago, RichLD said:

 

Go on, rub it in why don't you! 

 

I wouldn't do that, Rich!

PS, here's one from last night:

lly

[tomato]

Aaaargh!

[tomato]

Looks like it will be clear again tonight but the moon will be a bit of a killer, so I'll see what I can achieve guiding wise with a proper PA and tweaking PHD.

[RichLD]

13 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

I wouldn't do that, Rich!

PS, here's one from last night:

lly

The killer combination of the graph and the bacon sandwich is what really got me 

[ollypenrice]

Just now, RichLD said:

The killer combination of the graph and the bacon sandwich is what really got me 

Yes, it was a bit of an orgy!

Now for a real laugh: the top trace was from the Tak EM200 and the second from the Avalon linear, and what have I just done? Sold both of them. This new (second hand) Mesu had better be good!

lly