Summertime Imaging

[Kaliska]

Just wondering if you guys still image during the summer months? So far, I've only imaged whilst is astronomically dark (using the "Clear Outside" app), but soon that will be gone.

Do you take shorter exposures, but more of them? Or do you just pack things up and wait till the autumn?

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Planets, moon and sun are still available, but DSO-wise I am considering using narrow-band filters. I recently got some decent data on M13 with R, G, and B whilst it wasn't fully dark here, so some targets are still OK, but the noise in the background was noticeably higher than earlier shots in the dark. I am thinking of targeting planetaries with H-alpha and O-III

[Kaliska]

I use mono and NB filters, so you are saying that i should still get good results if using NB filters?

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

1 minute ago, Kaliska said:

I use mono and NB filters, so you are saying that i should still get good results if using NB filters?

Narrowband should cut out a lot of the annoying background, and combined with high surface-brightness targets such as planetaries, it might work. Haven't tried it yet

[Craney]

This is a good and topical post to have....  ironically about 90% of this year's clear skies have occurred in the last fortnight or so, just as  twilight creeps ever closer to both sides of midnight.

Might be an ideal time to image the open clusters and get the Messier log sheet filled in.

 

[wimvb]

I've stored my gear already. The period mid-April to mid-August is no good for night time imaging up here. I spend the summer months cleaning and tinkering. Also considering what part of FLO's warehouse to help turn over next. (Need: a polemaster. Want: more than I can afford.)

[tooth_dr]

Interesting thread.  Even though the sun set at half nine last night, the western sky was still very much 'bright' as I went to bed at half eleven.  I've sort of resided myself to solar imaging for the next 2 months.  I'm already feeling down about not being able to do any deep sky imaging

[newbie alert]

27 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

Interesting thread.  Even though the sun set at half nine last night, the western sky was still very much 'bright' as I went to bed at half eleven.  I've sort of resided myself to solar imaging for the next 2 months.  I'm already feeling down about not being able to do any deep sky imaging

As miss gems such as the crescent, bubble..helix,elephant nebulae....

[Ouroboros]

I'm tempted to reply to this thread by jokingly saying maybe I'm not even a winter imager anymore. Until this week I haven't done any imaging since last November due to lousy skies over the last winter combined with a lack of opportunity. Hey ho. Such is a British astronomer's life. I tend not to do so much astronomy in the summer season May to August. But it's a good chance to get the kit out in the sun to check it over. Clean out the warm room (shed) and give  it a coat of wood stain etc. And sometimes I just get tempted by a warm summers night to leave the telescope out and just relax looking at whatever I feel like. 

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

One other solution I have used: take the kit along to southern Europe during the summer holidays. Skies are definitely darker there

[Hicks]

I usually skip the couple of months we have no true darkness unless there's something I really want to image. However, this year I want to spend a few nights tweaking collimation and trying to improve parts of my setup/guiding. All of which summer skies are just as good for plus I don't feel any pressure over wasting a night :)

 

[DaveS]

I have imaged in HII during summer twilight, but that was with a 3nm Astrodon filter.

[Kaliska]

Unfortunately I don't have a obsy to spruce up (I wish i did, but i just dont have a good location to put one up), so my scope is semi set up, next to me hear by my computer, look all dejected.

1 hour ago, DaveS said:

I have imaged in HII during summer twilight, but that was with a 3nm Astrodon filter.

How did the images turn out with the 3nm? I have a 7nm and I'm guessing the bandwidth might not be narrow enough. No harm in trying it out though i guess.

[DaveS]

I found this old thread from June last year

Comments suggest it was better than I anticipated.