Getting back into imaging after a long break

[DaveS]

That's a good wide field, what's the exposure time?

You've got the Crescent, where I'm pointing ATM.

[JamesF]

NaN and Pelican down in the bottom left, too?

James

[carastro]

We're on the same target, except yours is widefield.  Nice to see you imaging again.

Carole 

[Gina]

Ha is 30s, OIII is 60s

This is OIII

[Gina]

Cygnus Loop bottom right.

[DaveS]

Yep, very clear in [OIII].

Very good to see you imaging again!

[Gina]

SII 120s exposure.  For what it's worth!!

[DaveS]

[SII} usually is rather faint. Trying some on the Crescent, so faint I'm not even sure I'm on the target.

[JamesF]

Definitely some clouds about at the moment, though they're supposed to clear up later according to the forecast.  I can see them over to the east, lit up by the Moon.

James

[Gina]

Oh yes, I can see some bands of cloud lit up by the newly risen moon.

Can't see any clouds straight up but there aren't as many stars showing as there sometimes are.

Edited August 20, 2019 by Gina

[JamesF]

I think the lack of stars might just be that the sky is brighter because of the Moon.

James

[DaveS]

Just to make my joy complete teh [SII] subs were out of focus! With the moon up I don't know if I'll bother.

Good luck with your imaging Gina, I may just turn in.

[Gina]

I think I have some cloud - the Cygnus Loop has turned misty.  Thinking of packing it in myself.

[Gina]

Actually, the focus could be better for the Ha.  Camera lens are not fully apochromatic right into the far red so the focus is slightly different for Ha and SII as compared with OIII. 

[JamesF]

I'm going to stick with it for a while yet.  I don't think it's that much worse than last night and in fact the seeing might be a little better.  I'd like to get some subs of the Moon too, but I need it to be a bit higher yet.

James

[DaveS]

The [SII] sub I tried was no great shakes. Trying a HII, but TBH I think there's just too much moon. The milky way has been a bit washed out all evening, and now it's disappeared altogether.

Edited August 20, 2019 by DaveS

[JamesF]

Just called it a night, though the sky is actually probably in better shape now than it's been all evening.  I don't think it's going to be that way for long though.

I stopped for a while around midnight and spent an hour learning my way around Kstars and Ekos by which time it was clear, so I kicked off a quick run on the Moon.  After less than 30 subs really heavy cloud rolled in and I had to stop for about 45 minutes at which point the sky cleared again and I got another set, but I think that was probably the limit of what was achievable this evening.

James

[Gina]

I left my rig running and went to bed.  Looks like I captured another 50 OIII subs of Cygnus but haven't looked at all of them yet.  Went out this morning to find the observatory running with dew so I've left the roof open to let it dry off.  Strangely there was no dew on the rain detector though it might have already dried off in the morning sunshine.  Rain detector is not connected yet.

[JamesF]

It must have suddenly got colder during the night.  I left the roof of my observatory closed until about 10pm because there was a heavy dew earlier in the evening, but everything was dry when I called it a night at just after 2am.  Unlike the previous night, when it was very damp.

James

[Gina]

Just checked my OIII subs in Blink in PixInsight and there was thin cloud or dew or mist as later subs were rather "washed out".  Oh well, that's the way things go sometimes!  At least I achieved solving and slewing to target (sort of).  At least this software/firmware seems a lot more reliable than the Windows collection I used before and a lot easier to use.

[Dr_Ju_ju]

👍 👏👏....

[DaveS]

When I packed up I put a pet-warmer under the Telegizmos cover. Unfortunately this dislodged one of the counterweights, so I now have a balancing job to do. Bother.

[Gina]

Looks like the weekend may give the best next chance of some imaging.

[Gina]

Hmmmpppfffff...  the clear night sky has moved on to Monday with pretty solid cloud until then!

[DaveS]

Been doing the same here too, but I'm not sure there's *any* green in the forecast for next week, and the lovely blue sky we had has vanished behind solid low nimbostratus.