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First Ever Imaging Session


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As per the title. 

Sitting back with a beer contemplating the night sky whilst my scope/camara/mount hoovers photons effortlessly . I can see some galaxies (M81/82) on the subs. Lots of data 😁.

Just realised that i’ve Forgotten to focus the £&@ing thing before starting!?🤬🤬🤬.

All in all I think that we’ll call it a success. Most of it works. I’ve got some fuzzy data. Could have been worse.😁

Nice to be out under the stars. Might have to bring out the Dob next session to get some observing done while the lil’un does its stuff.

3E5BE410-E983-4672-8DCE-22717C58EA01.jpeg

Edited by Paul73
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Congratulations on your first imaging session. You have taken the first steps on an amazing journey, with a steep learning curve. Do you have a copy of this book? Well worth the investment, if you haven't.

5 hours ago, Paul73 said:

Just realised that i’ve Forgotten to focus the £&@ing thing before starting!?🤬🤬🤬. 

Been there, done that, got the tee-shirt. My favourite is focussing and then forgetting to remove the mask. Don't worry, there are plenty more of these "silly" mistakes in store, but I guarantee, whatever you do, you will find someone on here has done it before you.

Enjoy the journey.

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My, my... who’d have thought this day would come...? Paul imaging!! The force from the dark side is hard to resist. Congratulations on your first session! A lifetime of frustration and elation awaits. Enjoy the journey. I look forward to seeing your first image post.

Edited by PhotoGav
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Just realised that i’ve Forgotten to focus the £&@ing thing before starting!?🤬🤬🤬.

Lol, well I have been imaging for 9 years and 2 weeks ago did the same thing.  Doh!!!!

You'd think I'd have learnt by now.

Carole 

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2 hours ago, PhotoGav said:

My, my... who’d have thought this day would come...? Paul imaging!! The force from the dark side is hard to resist. Congratulations on your first session! A lifetime of frustration and elation awaits. Enjoy the journey. I look forward to seeing your first image post.

It doesn’t count as imaging until I get an image 😁. And, I can stop any time that I want! 😁

I have to admit that there was a little moment of joy when a couple of non stellar fuzzies appeared on the camera screen. Nothing compared to the thrill of hunting down a really faint target or seeing spiral arms with just some glass and your eyes.....

What is nice, is the amount of encouragement and support from those more experienced in the Dark Arts.

Thanks to all

Paul

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What is nice, is the amount of encouragement and support from those more experienced in the Dark Arts.

We were all beginners once, and can remember all the problems.  That's the nice thing with this hobby, every-one is so helpful.

Carole 

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:):)
And get ready to the "Bahtinov mask session"! :)

I have 1, very nice,  6 or 7 hour imaging session full of spikes! :) too much of automation sometimes leads to fails as simple as this :)

I hope, it was the 1st and the last one! :)

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7 hours ago, carastro said:

Lol, well I have been imaging for 9 years and 2 weeks ago did the same thing.  Doh!!!!

You'd think I'd have learnt by now.

Carole 

Last time out I took 3 subs with the lens cap in place, just as well it wasn't really dark enough, I blamed the wife, she called me in for something.

Alan

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Two things:

1) I think I have posted here before about the visual astronomer I met in Texas who defined an imager as "a guy swearing in the dark at something that isn't working".

2) The more time I spend in this hobby, the more it reminds me of aviation. Intellectually challenging, expensive, full of moving parts that all have to work but frequently don't, leaving you debugging complex systems in the moment. And between that frisson of fear that never went away even after thousands of hours, and hypoxia (I'm asthmatic, The Stupids come on pretty fast for me with altitude), I always felt as if I were operating well below peak cognitive capacity.

So too with imaging. Late hours, in the dark, feeling rushed to fix things fast before the precious imaging time slips away. I am constantly gobsmacked the next morning by how stupid I was the night before. (OK, yes, many people are frequently stunned by how stupid I was the night before, let's just move on now, shall we?)

One crutch does help for both of them: Checklists. Oddly enough, I never seem to actually use mine in the field. Should remember my mindfulness classes,  slow down, and make use of what brain cells I do have.

PS: My last time I was working myself up into a fine lather over why the 183 just wasn't producing enough stars to focus on. Yep, lens cap. I didn't even have the excuse of an interruption.

Edited by rickwayne
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10 hours ago, Paul73 said:

It doesn’t count as imaging until I get an image 😁. And, I can stop any time that I want! 😁

Yes, but one night when you look upwards and the sky is super clear........

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1 hour ago, bobro said:

Yes, but one night when you look upwards and the sky is super clear........

I’ll always be out under the stars. The question is, will the tube that i’m swearing at, have a camera or an eyepiece jammed in the end.

Last night’s data is a dud. DSS can only find 1 star on any of the subs! I guess that they really were out of focus! 😂😂😂 Can’t wait to get back out there for another go.

Paul

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