Typical newbie mistakes

[Kev M]

Ok I am still new to this imaging lark as last nights episode will show.

Seen a quite unexpected unforecast clear skies up here last night so thought...go for it.

Polar aligned HEQ5...quite accurately I thought for me.

Done the usual setup with skyscan and slewed to first alignment star.... a bit out.

2nd alignment star a bit out ?  Went to first target...miles out ?

Thought ok..check everything....noticed I had put in date as 5/5/2019 rather than 6/5/2019...it had gone past midnight...idiot.

Re-entered date tried again......1st alignment star...wildly out of position .....what....

Checked again....noticed I had put 6/5/2019 in as date rather than 5/6/2019.....bloody americans !

Redone alignment....quite reasonable for me...both stars near where they should be.

Fitted camera and slewed to M51.....had I focused camera on 2nd alignment star before going to target....nope.

Back to alignment star....focused camera....slewed to M51.

Thought ok calm down have a coffee...nipped into house made a coffee.

Came back outside and the sky had gone almost completely white .......aaaaaarrrrggghhhh !

 

[Ronclarke]

I feel your pain, I think most of us have had nights like this (more than one!!) I'm not far away in Newark on Trent if you need any help just shout!!

Cheers

Ron

[John]

I do read about issues such as the ones that you have experienced quite regularly so you are not alone. They are why, long ago, I decided that I would use non-GOTO mounts, with minimal setup / tear down requirements and as little relaiance on tech as possible. Generally I find that has worked for me and I've made manually finding my way around the sky and star hopping to targets part of the experience

[Gfamily]

SynScanInit app is a quick and easy way of making sure your location and time/date are as accurate and correctly formatted as possible. 

HTH

[Kev M]

5 hours ago, Ronclarke said:

I feel your pain, I think most of us have had nights like this (more than one!!) I'm not far away in Newark on Trent if you need any help just shout!!

Cheers

Ron

Thanks Ron,

I think we might have already met....did I buy an HEQ5 pier mount head from you about a year ago ?

Kev

 

 

 

[Ronclarke]

I think you did! The offer still stands ?

[cletrac1922]

Kev

There is a fairly new SynScan WiFi adapter

Down load the SynScan App, I have Android device

The App automatically sets GPS, date/time from mobile device

Takes guess work out of everything

John

 

[jadcx]

This sounds horribly familiar.  I'd like to say that after my first few weeks/months of observing that it doesn't happen any more.  I'd like to say that, but it wouldn't be true