A Frustrating night M45 was OK - Then it went downhill from there

[Psychobilly]

An Unexpected clear night was wasted :crybaby:

Started badly by leaving the focus mask on the end of the scope whilst grabbing 2 1/2 hours of sub for M33...

(click to enlarge)

OK we live and learn... so it was off to M45....

(click to enlarge)

Then it was the long term planned HDR Stack M42/43 NGC1977 at ISO 400 with 10 x 15,30,60,120,240 and 360 subs... OK camera needed to be rotated....

So... slackened what i thought was the screw to free the rotating section of the FF III rotated the camera tightend it back up and started the automated sequence...

Next Target was NGC2244 so another few hours subs captured....

And then finish of the night with anew one NGC2264....

When i checked the subs... I had slackened the wrong screw allowing the FFIII to slip back in the focuser so nearly 7 hours of subs are out of focus...

It's going to take a lot more than focus magic to recover anything from these data sets...

(click to enlarge)

No more IRC for me - fun though it is - on imaging nights I think ... I should have been concentrating on the job in hand rather than chewing the cud... I got sloppy and have paid in losing what was probably the best night of the last few months

Billy...Retires to bed in shame :crybaby: :crybaby: :crybaby: :crybaby: :crybaby: :crybaby: :crybaby:

[661-pete]

That's a great shame, sympathies all round (except for your pleiades, no cause for grief there!). Have you already tried unsharp mask on your M42 (looks like you have)? Doubt if even Noels tools will fix it though. Why the trailing on M33 - is it a focus mask artefact (or is that a tale for another cloudy night )?

Keep you chin up! There'll be other nights!

[Psychobilly]

Hi Pete M33 they arent trailing aretfacts every point source ahs been transformed into the infocus difraction pattern forn the focus mask...easier to see in the larger brighter stars near the left hand side of the image...

I haven't tried any unsharp processing yet but i suspect they are too far gone for "de-convolution" to do any good...

Time for a checklist for the obs I think....

Billy....

[bazza]

Billy,

Chin up mate - that M45 is a corker!

Barry.

[jgs001]

At least the M45 came out well Billy....

[Psychobilly]

AH well Pooh happens and hopefully got it all out of the way in one night....

I a definitely going to stick a checklist to the imaging laptop... M45 is the only soliace from last nights session so i'll spend soem time on its data today... early subs had been "spread" by the dew as it hadn't yet fallen out I will try removing them and see what happens...

Billy...

[russ]

Ah that's a shame about M33 and M42, these things happen with this hobby. But the M45 image is such a cracker! Looks really nice.

Russ

[Psychobilly]

Right Back on the bike...

Sitting on M33 this time without the focus mask and now know what scre does what on th FF III...

Looks like a bit of cloud dodging tonight and dont think I'll still have clear skies when M42 coems into view as snow is forecast...

Scopes have been in the obs all day and i took extended sub zero darks and bias...

Now have 300 bias frames at 400,800 and 1600 iso and 20 darks at 180 and 360s for 400,800 and 1600 as well...

Hopefully at least add to M33 and M45 data before the snow comes...

Billy...

[jcm]

Nice M45.

With all the electronics "gubbins" we have to use the chance of making silly mistakes is quite high. My latest was to stop the auto guider while I framed the object and then to start imaging but fail to remember to restart the guider. I wondered why lots of the images had star trails

John

[Doc]

Sorry to here that Billy.

I feel a bit guilty as I was chatting to you last night....

I should have said NO Billy get into your observatory and check on things.

Anyway M45 is excellent.

[Psychobilly]

its all right Doc... sloppy operating procedures on my part ... and forgot to check and double check things...

ALl going to paln so far though apart from loss of guide to a passigng cloud...hopefully transparency will improve once the dew drops which its doing and freezing already...

i'll be in the lounge later but wont stay for long...