When do you start imaging with regards the Moon setting

[smr]

Hi guys,

Just wondered when you start imaging with regards to a full or illuminated Moon and it's position relative to the horizon/setting when imaging nebula without Ha filters for instance.

Do you wait until the Moon sets, so tonight that would be 10:59pm. Or do you start imaging when it's below a certain altitude, or do you wait until well after the Moon has set and it's below the horizon? 

Wondering how much moon light affects imaging. 

[Stub Mandrel]

It has a big effect, but I always use a moon & skyglow or a Ha filter. When its up I only go for brighter objects.

Tonight its RISES at 11:11 and will be up all night, it set at 10:59 this morning!

So tonight I'm doing Andromeda which is fairly bright and sticking to two-minute subs. Not expecting earth-shattering results as it will have a fair gradient from LP and the moon, but at least its something.

Earlier on I did M25 and Pluto, both low down and would be washed out by light pollution but open clusters (and star like planets) should be OK with shortish exposures

[don4l]

I spent last year playing with all this stuff.

I can image with a 3nm Ha filter almost anytime.  If the moon is too bright, I keep away from it.  Tonight I am imaging around the Crescent, and I cannot see any effect.  However, if I was a much better imager, then I might notice that the dimmer areas were not as good as they might be.  Maybe next year I won't bother on a night like tonight.  When I was using a 7nm filter, the moon had a much greater effect.  Even then, I could do stuff binned 2x2.

OIII is affected much more by the moonlight, even at 3nm.  At 12nm, I found the OIII almost unusable if there was any moonlight at all.  I think that is partly due to the fact that most OIII targets are much weaker than the Ha targets, so if there is any background light, then it will have a bigger impact.

I found that practising gave me a feel for what I can do.

 

I wouldn't bother imaging without narrowband tonight.