too windy to image?

[scitmon]

Question for the more experienced imagers here.  The forecast for clear skies looks good tonight, but with winds of around 10mph and gusts up to 24mph.  Are these wind conditions too problematic for AP?  Even with a 80ED on a AZEQ6?

[kirkster501]

If it moves the scope, it is too windy.  If it doesn't then it isn't.

[knobby]

I think I'd be tempted to have a bash, can't afford to waste a clear night ... Can you maybe set up somewhere slightly sheltered ?

[swag72]

I'd give it a go and see how the guiding goes......

[lukebl]

It's too windy for my 200mm Newt, but probably ok for your 80ED.

[Ibbo!]

depends on the scope and the mount.

 

i'm imaging at the moment

[geordie85]

If I wasn't stuck at work I'd be imaging right now.

Even if I don't keep any of the subs it's still good practice for setting up, polar alignment, guiding etc.

Plus if I don't image for too long I get really anxious and depressed, but maybe that's just me.

[Jonk]

If you're sheltered from the wind, behind a fence or something, then you'll only know by trying it as suggested.

I started at 17:00 this evening, on my 4th 1800sec OIII sub already as we speak, but worryingly clearoutside says chance of rain between 22:00 and 01:00 with 0% cloud all night?!

It also has red wind warning but it's clear and still outside right now.

Just set up and get it going, don't worry too much about the wind etc as you will get more data regardless, but none if you don't set up.

Plus it's good practice anyway, even if the subs are rubbish due to the conditions.

[ollypenrice]

Two things are in play on a windy night. 1) Does the wind nudge the scope? (I'm observatory based with hefty Mesu mounts and it doesn't.) 2) Does the wind create sharp temperature changes in layers at different altitudes, creating unstable seeing? In my case, at this site, it always does.  So how to react? I don't bother trying to obtain high resolution data in the wind. At high res I'll just go for colour and get sharp luminance another night. In low res widefield I tend to carry on regardless.

Olly

[lukebl]

1 hour ago, ollypenrice said:

.... Does the wind nudge the scope? ..

Olly, I wonder if you've been away from Blighty so long that you've forgotten how windy it can get here! It's not just a little nudging of the scope, it's full-scale buffeting from all directions.

[DaveS]

If I wasn't laid up with the lurgy I'd be imaging. The DDM is very stiff with immediate encoder feedback to correct any movement.

[scitmon]

Well I did setup to have a go, but unfortunately I had to borrow a friends camera because mine are away being modded.  It turns out that the Canon 400d he lent me did not have liveview making focusing near impossible, and I couldn't get it working with APT anyway! It would connect, but any images I took would not come through to the computer.  I had to call it a night.  I patiently await Juan from cheapastrophotgraphy to send my 1000d and 700d's back!

[geordie85]

Finally finished work and the moon is just starting to rear it's bright face. Nevertheless it's clear so I'm taking my chances whilst I can.

Scope pointing at M81. Dslr pointing at M31 

[r3i]

I've been doing OIII subs through my 8" RC + FR tonight and it has been very gusty - the walls of the observatory have not been sufficient to temper the 30mph gusts, so a lot of subs have had to be ditched - still, it's good practice and character building. 

[Jonk]

Yep, here it comes! (Bottom left of image)

[ollypenrice]

14 hours ago, lukebl said:

Olly, I wonder if you've been away from Blighty so long that you've forgotten how windy it can get here! It's not just a little nudging of the scope, it's full-scale buffeting from all directions.

Hey, we get the Mistrale here! A short trip from the house to a hilltop gives us a view of Mont Ventoux on the summit of which, on November 19th, 1967, a wind speed of 320 kph was recorded. That's 198.8 mph.

In fact our place is located in a kind of natural crater so we don't get the worst of it and the local mountains are orientated in east-west chains so the northerly mistrale loses energy en route. It prefers the Rhone valley. But we do get exciting weather here!

Olly