Why Bother

[Paul M]

Some people spend thousands of pounds on a holiday that lasts a week or two (we used to live for our holidays). Much of the fun of holidays is the looking forward to them. Same with astro gear. Planning, setting up and configuring, just looking forward to those infrequent nights when it can be used. 

I spend most of my time playing with software. Updating and experimenting, all in the hope that when that clear night happens I might actually get some images. In my experience successful nights are about one tenth as common as all other imaging nights!

Right now I'm on an 18 day shift break. Lots of hope for some clear weather but I've had one single night out, which was about 10% successful. Frost and dew and technical difficulties all took their toll.

[discardedastro]

If you are doing AP in the UK seriously then I think an automated observatory is a must-have, or a lot of patience. The clear nights I've had, I still need to be asleep for 1am to work the next day, and maybe 5-6 more hours go past unused. Add it up over a year like this one and that's easily doubling or even more your hours-of-clear-skies count.

But if you're happy waiting and viewing it as a long term thing, then, yeah, the expense is less mad and you can still make great stuff in terms of images. I do think it ends up being something where you absolutely need the telescope to be doing imaging 100% of the time when the nights are clear, so you end up with a second scope for observing, etc...

[Space Hopper]

I just enjoy fiddling about with telescopes and astro gear.

Its in my blood as well.

But i don't take it too seriously. With our UK conditions theres little point in stressing over it.

When we do get a good night, or when we see something new, or take a nice image, thats what makes it all worthwhile.

Edited January 19, 2021 by Space Hopper

[Spile]

I am using the time to plan targets, ponder over star maps, get ideas for diy Astro projects, read this and other forums and sort out a blog. Lots to do.

[Roy Foreman]

Presumably a very tall one !!

[MattJenko]

I can only speak for myself, but the process of progressing with astronomy and AP in particular has taught me a lot, and not just about clouds. I moved from a DSLR to a modded DSLR to a small mono CCD to a larger chip CMOS, and now to a low resolution spectroscope, and it has been an evolving process on where I want to go, given what I have learnt and where my interests turn. There is so much more that amateur equipment can do if you get frustrated needing multiple hours/sessions of data to improve on images you may have already taken, and others will have done better. The cosmos is a changing place, there are only so many professional telescopes and there are lots of pro-am collaborations to be had once you decide to dabble in photometry and spectroscopy. This also has the benefit of not requiring the same volume of subs as glorious APODs, so even short sessions can produce results that you can really be proud of and can genuinely be used for research, with the bonus there is a very good chance no-one else has that spectrum at that point in time. I know it is not for everyone, but as mentioned right at the start, the journey for me has absolutely been worth bothering and while I may at times have long breaks because of circumstance, as the saying goes, the stars are still going to be up there when I have the time and the inclination and those cursed clouds part.

[tomato]

You could ask the same question about a lot of expensive hobbies (e.g. motor sport, horse riding), regarding the actual time spent physically doing the activity vs acquiring the kit, modifying and maintaining it etc, (not sure how you modify a horse, but who knows?)

As for objects to image, Telescopius informs me there are 9855 DSOs accessible from my location to image tonight, and it is clear so I best get cracking.

[DaveS]

And even when it does clear Micro-$-Oft borks your imaging PC with its Win-Dross updates. A beautiful clear night and everything is either not connecting or not responding.

SNAFU

[Jamgood]

I bother for nights like tonight. Crystal clear skies for the first time in an age! Telescope is outside imaging away and while I'm keeping an eye on things, I'm reading, learning, planning future targets.

[Stu1smartcookie]

Frustration for me is cloudy skies that clear at 10pm but mean I have no opportunity to set up as I am up at 5 every week day ! Such a small window of opportunity and now as I look outside it’s another wasted night for me ! The summer is even worse as it doesn’t really get dark until really late . So , why bother ? Well despite what is written above .. I love this hobby and I love looking at the natural beauty of our sky ... and if I can get the occasional image , it’s worth it . 

[Altair8389]

On 18/01/2021 at 17:48, rnobleeddy said:

I understand the frustration. It's been fine this last year because there's not much else going on, but I do worry about how often I'll get the gear out if/when some form of socialising resumes!

 

That said, I don't know if I live in a good spot or am lucky or less fussy, but there's been at least two clear nights here in January that I've made it out and at least another 1.5 that I've missed.

When people say it's been cloudy for a month, is that literally no clear skies?

I have not much imaging since around late May 2020. I attributed this mainly to the high winds, clouds and rain. Plus worsening light pollution at night , for instance a house not far from us has a security light in the garden facing in my direction (but not directly in my eyes) at night which is triggered often, and puts out a massive blast of light. I can only see that as wasting electricity and causing more destruction for the planet ! as well as disturbing my imaging. I see the clear spells have been brief, and sandwiched between wet/cloudy/windy weather. So setting up could be difficult as you can't get polar alignment and all the computer, power, batteries etc set up before having to pull it down again in a hurry due a change in weather.

 

Does anyone have the same problems ?

 

[Stu1smartcookie]

5 hours ago, Altair8389 said:

have not much imaging since around late May 2020. I attributed this mainly to the high winds, clouds and rain. Plus worsening light pollution at night , for instance a house not far from us has a security light in the garden facing in my direction (but not directly in my eyes) at night which is triggered often, and puts out a massive blast of light. I can only see that as wasting electricity and causing more destruction for the planet ! as well as disturbing my imaging. I see the clear spells have been brief, and sandwiched between wet/cloudy/windy weather. So setting up could be difficult as you can't get polar alignment and all the computer, power, batteries etc set up before having to pull it down again in a hurry due a change in weather.

 

Does anyone have the same problems ?

I always wanted to image ... but , with our weather the way it is , it became a frustrating and extortionately expensive part of astronomy . ( if you calculate how many times you get to use the gear throughout the year ) . Currently i have a visual set up where i can use a camera if there is a good clear night , but i also bought a more lightweight Alt Az mount that means i am still able to get outside  without the pressure of polar aligning  . I am amazed at the results others get from imaging .. i will never be at their level so for me , better to observe when i can . Its honestly kept me sane as i was getting a bit depressed looking constantly at cloud !!

[rnobleeddy]

8 hours ago, Altair8389 said:

I have not much imaging since around late May 2020. I attributed this mainly to the high winds, clouds and rain. Plus worsening light pollution at night , for instance a house not far from us has a security light in the garden facing in my direction (but not directly in my eyes) at night which is triggered often, and puts out a massive blast of light. I can only see that as wasting electricity and causing more destruction for the planet ! as well as disturbing my imaging. I see the clear spells have been brief, and sandwiched between wet/cloudy/windy weather. So setting up could be difficult as you can't get polar alignment and all the computer, power, batteries etc set up before having to pull it down again in a hurry due a change in weather.

 

Does anyone have the same problems ?

 

I think you have to find a way to minimise setup time. I've decided just to leave my mount under a cover in the garden. It doesn't appear to suffer too much, but even if it does, I'd rather get more use out of it.

I built a platform that I mounted to my OTA that holds a Raspberry pi and accessories and all the cables. So it takes maybe 5 minutes to attach the scope and balance it, 5 minutes to get the power setup, and an optional 5 minutes to tweak the PA. 

A decent focus motor helps - so usually I can be imaging about 15 minutes after it's dark enough to PA.

I also think you have to be a little bit optimistic about the weather. At least where I live, my recommendation is to uninstall Clear Out because it's insanely pessimistic. The met office app is much better. 

[Stu Wilson]

Had many thoughts like all of those along the way.

Its a huge learning curve.

However if some point in the middle of that curve you can grab a photo like this just under the moons glare then surely its worth the effort????

Taken tonight with possibly my last go with 20 year old scope before new one arrives tomorrow.

Clear Skies

 

Stu

[Altair8389]

Good work Stu. Would you be able to give us a post of your stacked final image before processing. I always wonder how you managed such a nice picture, because I find my unprocessed RAW files are lacking detail and nothing what you produce. Well done !

[Altair8389]

16 hours ago, rnobleeddy said:

I think you have to find a way to minimise setup time. I've decided just to leave my mount under a cover in the garden. It doesn't appear to suffer too much, but even if it does, I'd rather get more use out of it.

I built a platform that I mounted to my OTA that holds a Raspberry pi and accessories and all the cables. So it takes maybe 5 minutes to attach the scope and balance it, 5 minutes to get the power setup, and an optional 5 minutes to tweak the PA. 

A decent focus motor helps - so usually I can be imaging about 15 minutes after it's dark enough to PA.

I also think you have to be a little bit optimistic about the weather. At least where I live, my recommendation is to uninstall Clear Out because it's insanely pessimistic. The met office app is much better. 

Thanks, rnobleeddy,

I would like to have more room in my house/garage, so I can leave some of my setup without dismantling everything. Unfortunately, I seem to have too much stuff in my house, or my house is too small ? I have dreamt about a "Thunderbirds" style set up, when with a press of a button, my telescope and mount goes from my house or observatory into the field/garden and I can start imaging !! The equipment would be on rails or something; I can then close the system by pressing another button. I can only dream... Would it be wonderful to be as rich as Elon Musk. I am sure he could afford a really good setup.

 

[Stu1smartcookie]

6 minutes ago, Altair8389 said:

Would it be wonderful to be as rich as Elon Musk. I am sure he could afford a really good setup.

 

lol then you could put a car into space