has your dso season restarted

[iwols]

hi all after a few months trying the planets thinking about changing my setup to dso  imaging is it time yet??

[Davey-T]

Been time for a while I think, starting in Sagittarius heading north to Cepheus then back down though Perseus to Auriga, lots to image and not enough clear sky to do it.

Dave

Edited August 26, 2019 by Davey-T

[geoflewis]

I only tried a handful of planetary runs this summer with, as expected, very limited success. I had hoped to focus mainly on some summer DSOs, but other family stuff got in the way of that, so really I did very little imaging the past 6 weeks, but did do somebrief visual sessions on The Veil, Crescent, Dumbell, some globs, etc., which was fun. Now the dust has settled I have decided to go straight back to DSOs, so got my first couple of nights back imaging over this weekend. The Moon is now getting out of the way allowing some longer sessions as night darkness lengthens, so I still have a chance to tick of some low southern Messier targets to add to my collection, mostly open clusters and globs. Geof

[dave_galera]

Have you looked at   https://telescopius.com/   it is invaluable for planning.

[iwols]

52 minutes ago, dave_galera said:

Have you looked at   https://telescopius.com/   it is invaluable for planning.

yes wouldnt be without it,in general what time do you guys start imaging

[Davey-T]

3 minutes ago, iwols said:

,in general what time do you guys start imaging

Best to get everything up and running by twilight given all the things that can go wrong 

Dave

[geoflewis]

3 hours ago, iwols said:

yes wouldnt be without it,in general what time do you guys start imaging

For the low southern targets I’ve been after I’ve started with astronomical twilight at around 9:30pm, as if I waited until full darkness they’d be too low down this late in the year. I’ve not processed any of them yet, so may find that they all crap...!! I start to cool down the camera around 9:00pm then plate solve the first target to be ready to start the sequence as soon as I think it’s dark enough. Geof

[discardedastro]

+1 to setting up well in advance - I started off my session with a long Ha exposure, there's better contrast in Ha during twilight anyway (I think - seems so) and the long exposure highlights any PA/guide issues before I get into it.