Who is out to play tonight?

[fwm891]

I'm still playing tonight. M20 until it hid behind a neighbours roof, Moved up to M16 till it did the same - now on NGC6960 and maybe later M52...

[discardedastro]

Single 900s Ha frame, just calibrated (poorly - I don't have a 900s dark to hand) and histogram+curve'd. Definitely a "oh right, everything is working and the skies are good" moment...

[smr]

Imaging the Eastern Veil for the first time. Skies are good here. Will try and image for as long as possible!

[DaveS]

Unfortunately the morons have come out to play as well, sweeping the southern sky (From here) with mega candle power searchlights . What I'd do to them doesn't bear repeating on a family forum,.

[Yawning Angel]

3 nights running! Spent a bit of time over the last two messing with some pesky issues, as is the curse of imaging but also playing with a CCTV camera for a quick fix all-sky. Seems to be doing okay for £30 - It does a bit of on-camera stacking apparently

 

[don4l]

The sky looks black here, but the transparency must be poor.   There is no hint at all of the milky way, and it took several minutes of dark adaptation to see the bottom two stars in Lyra.  I can usually see them in a few seconds.  Deneb was the only hint of Cygnus for a while.

I've just restarted my attempt at the squid after a meridian flip.  I can confirm that it doesn't show up in a 10min 2x2 sub taken through the green filter.  Doh!

 

[carastro]

Been imaging since it got dark, but my target is dodging around the Clamshell dome and lost it for a few subs.  Moved the dome and then I went off to watch a video and only just checked remotely to find it hadn't even re-started as "unable to set the filterwheel".  This happens most times when i start a sequence, all I need to do is ask it to try again and it will work.  Really annoyed with myself that I didn't watch it actually start before walking off, so more subs wasted.

Doing the dimmest target I have ever tried - Little Rosette Nebula Sh2-170.  Trouble is I am limited as to what I can do from SE London, and those that are doable I have done before, sometimes several times, don;t want to keep repeating the same targets.

Fingers crossed.

Carole 

Edited August 26, 2019 by carastro

[geordie85]

I'm playing out too. 

[JamesF]

I keep forgetting to bring my camera out to take a photo for the "show us your telescope at night" thread...

James

[geoflewis]

7 minutes ago, carastro said:

Moved the dome and then I went off to watch a video and only just checked remotely to find it hadn't even re-started as "unable to set the filterwheel".  This happens most times when i start a sequence, all I need to do is ask it to try again and it will work.  Really annoyed with myself that I didn't watch it actually start before walking off, so more subs wasted.

Drives you crazy when that happens - I can't count the number of times I've done something similar. Tonight I've stayed out in my obs warm room to keep an eye on everything and it really is a warm room after all the sun today.... Good luck with the Little Rosette Neb

[geordie85]

16 minutes ago, carastro said:

Been imaging since it got dark, but my target is dodging around the Clamshell dome and lost it for a few subs.  Moved the dome and then I went off to watch a video and only just checked remotely to find it hadn't even re-started as "unable to set the filterwheel".  This happens most times when i start a sequence, all I need to do is ask it to try again and it will work.  Really annoyed with myself that I didn't watch it actually start before walking off, so more subs wasted.

Doing the dimmest target I have ever tried - Little Rosette Nebula Sh2-170.  Trouble is I am limited as to what I can do from SE London, and those that are doable I have done before, sometimes several times, don;t want to keep repeating the same targets.

Fingers crossed.

Carole 

I've stopped an imaging run to check focus before. After I've refocused I've came indoors to have dinner and watch a film. After it finished I went out only to realise I didn't click start again in APT. 

[discardedastro]

1 minute ago, geordie85 said:

I've stopped an imaging run to check focus before. After I've refocused I've came indoors to have dinner and watch a film. After it finished I went out only to realise I didn't click start again in APT. 

My favourite fault of that type is when PHD2 aborts guiding due to a brief bit of cloud, and Ekos decides to abort the run instead of attempting to restart. I think with the Ekos scheduler that's covered, but that requires a bit more forward planning...

Autofocus is working well tonight at least. Just starting on an hour of blue now, then on to a bit more Ha if I can soldier on for another hour - still got to power on and lob the cover on after. What I'd give for an obsy with an automated roof...

[Ouroboros]

I soldiered on here in Cornwall despite more or less clouded out skies. I'm setting up my Mac with KStars/EKOS/INDI.  Tonight was the second night testing it for real with the mount, DSLR and guide camera. Mixed success. I'll have some questions for tomorrow if anyone is a KStars user.  Not now though. Too tired. 

What I did manage to do was to succesfully plate solve for the first time.  Amazingly I couldn't see by eye the stars the telescope was pointing At. They were completely misted out. But the guide camera picked them out, gave an image that the software plate solved. I'm impressed by that. 

[geoflewis]

After collecting 8x300sec each RGB on M16 I moved over to M73, a somewhat pointless asterism that I need for my Messier collection. I've just completed 10x120sec each RGB, which hopefully is more than enough for this target. With the Last Qtr Moon now rising in the NE, I've decided to call it a wrap and get some shut eye, even though the sky currently looks pretty good.

For those of you continuing into night, have fun and good luck.

Geof

[carastro]

Well my dome move only lasted the duration of the time when all the subs were wasted, and then when I restarted the scope had finally moved behind the dome so have had to slide the dome off the walls onto the dome table.  Not a job I enjoy doing as not only is it difficult but also difficult to do quietly.

Well it's off now, so will have the "joy" of putting it back on again at some point.

I shall also have to do a Meridian flip in the near future too, another "joy" as I do it all with the handset as not got platesolving working yet.   

Carole 

Edited August 26, 2019 by carastro

[Davey-T]

Not had much success tonight, the obs'y mount was producing eggy stars in RA for some reason it was fine the night before, faffed around for a bit but it didn't want to play nicely so gave up and took some calibration frames maybe it will fix itself for next time 😂

Dave

[JamesF]

18 minutes ago, Ouroboros said:

I soldiered on here in Cornwall despite more or less clouded out skies. I'm setting up my Mac with KStars/EKOS/INDI.  Tonight was the second night testing it for real with the mount, DSLR and guide camera. Mixed success. I'll have some questions for tomorrow if anyone is a KStars user.  Not now though. Too tired.

I'm learning my way around Kstars/Ekos, too.  It's a bit of an adventure, but I'm pleased so far.

James

[discardedastro]

8 minutes ago, JamesF said:

I'm learning my way around Kstars/Ekos, too.  It's a bit of an adventure, but I'm pleased so far.

James

Definitely still has some quirks - I think if it were a bit more transparent/tweakable in the capture module it'd solve a lot of my woes. I've also had the odd crash, though it's been stable lately. SGP is definitely easier/more powerful in some areas - I really, really want Ekos to gain focuser temperature compensation support.

Just performed a meridian flip 100% automatically, reset guiding, re-platesolved and aligned... not too shabby!

[JamesF]

The meridian flip is something I haven't got working yet (posted about that earlier).  I think that might be something I have to play with during the day.

James

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Clear skies, but really poor transparency and pronounced light pollution ruined it tonight, so I packed in about 1am. The one plus was viewing M15 for the first time.

Its great reading the success stories though!

 

[Whistlin Bob]

All done. Frustrating to start with, could not get ha working on Cygnus wall. Gave up and had a go at M31 in RGB as well as its been a long time. Then a happy few hours with the Dob whilst the camera was clicking away. M13 & 92 stunning in the Binoviewers and the Veil was a wonder in Oiii at 55x. Then the Pleiades just peaked over the neighbours house at the end of the session. Plus I've kept the neighborhood mosquitoes well fed tonight...

[carastro]

Quote

I've kept the neighborhood mosquitoes well fed tonight...

I had lots in the obsy when I was getting up and running, but I doused myself with mosquito repellent, hope it's done the trick.

Carole 

[Captain Scarlet]

Just packed up tonight. I was the other way around here in West Cork: transparency good, seeing not so good, but not too bad. I had a whole raft of things seen, but spent the most time on M31 and its neighbours M32 and M110 both of which I observed/noticed for the first time, each quite prominent. I saw actual lanes and detail in M31 for the first time. Using my 12" newt. I'll write up more fully, but as I was packing up I looked up around 10 to 2 and was met with this:

 

[geordie85]

Just done one last focus check. Still going for another hour or so. Then time to tear down again. 

I need an obsy 

[JamesF]

The Moon is starting to wash the sky out to the east now, so I don't think there's a huge amount of time left for me.  Won't be long before M27 disappears behind the trees to the west anyhow.

James