First attempt

[Nikodemuzz]

Pardon me, but this is going to be accompanied with a story. 😃

Couple of weeks ago we were skiing in northern Finland. I had brought my astro gear with me, as the forecast showed good chance for a clear night during the week. I had just taken delivery of my SpaceCat, which was to be (and still will be) the start of my astrophotography career. I also brought the C11 for visual observations. The conditions were tough for visual and AP, with the large moon and the temperatures falling below -25C as the night went on. There were people with us who had never looked through a telescope, so I had set up for visual during the day. We spent some time mainly observing the moon as it got dark. The weather was a bit nippy, and everybody was happy to go inside quite soon.

After dinner I headed back out. I mounted the SpaceCat, and had quite a bit of difficulty balancing, presumably the mount lubrication was starting to get slightly viscose from the cold. The grease was not the only thing feeling the northern winter and not appreciating it. Silly me, I had left the hand controller on the mount as we went in for dinner. For a moment I thought there was something wrong with the mount, but quickly realized it was just that the LCD had slowed down enough to not show the rolling text on the display at all! So I brought the hand controller in to warm up for a moment. Had a cup of rum and cocoa and headed back out to try again.

Now the hand controller was working fine, and I was able to align the mount without too much issue. Next would be polar alignment using the All-Star alignment, as Polaris was hidden behind some large trees. As it turned out, my tripod placement during the day had left something to be desired, and the latitude bolts did not have enough adjustment in them to cover the error. I was faced with a choice, either move the tripod a bit and re-align, or press on with poor polar alignment. My frozen fingers and the re-dying hand controller decided I would press on. I could still have a go at guiding with a SynGuider I received with the scope a few years back. So I installed the SynGuider on the finder, only to find that the finder's helical focuser had frozen solid!

OK, so no guiding. I could still try some short exposures unguided. I chose M81+M82 as my target, as they were the most interesting target in the area opposite from the moon. I slewed there, managed to focus and lo and behold! The clouds start to roll in. In the end I managed around 8 minutes through increasingly thickening cloud, no polar alignment, no guiding. It was fun, though, and plenty of lessons learned! I have to say that the camera (Fuji X-T3) operated flawlessly, despite being cold enough to stick to my bare fingers.

I had quite something else in mind, but this is what I got... First attempt at imaging as well as processing. Probably not the last! 😃

[daemon]

Great first attempt! Especially under the circumstances! I applaud your determination!

Clear skies!

[Adam1234]

Wow brilliant!

[Erling G-P]

5 hours ago, daemon said:

Great first attempt! Especially under the circumstances! I applaud your determination!

Clear skies!

Can only second that; sounds like tough conditions!

[Nikodemuzz]

Thank you, you are very kind! The conditions were a bit tough, though typical for the region when it is clear this time of year. I did feel sorry for the poor equipment, though! Everything seems to start to disintegrate in those temperatures. Cables become stiff and fragile, rubber becomes hard and cracks, and so on. The main equipment seem to be able to take it quite well, but the auxiliary things take a beating. 😃

 

[Rusted]

Well done and a nice image!   They used to cool photographic film to make it more sensitive.

I have only once tried to set up at similar temperatures. -23C.
The extension cable became as hard as rock in the form of a huge, spiral spring!  Does PVC have a memory of being coiled?
It had to sit out on the lawn for a week before it was finally warm enough to put away safely.
I bought a "rubbery" extension cable intended for building sites after that. Though I haven't tested it at very low temperatures.