More tough lessons......

[Ande]

Because last night looked wonderful and clear, with very little wind (in Exeter at least), I decided to have a trial run at things.  My gear for the night was a ZS61 with 0.8 R/F, a Canon 80D, and a Skyguider Pro mounted on a large, carbon tripod whose make and model eludes me right now. I’m awaiting a power pack, so was unable to include the guide camera and ASIair into the mix, which was probably no bad thing, as I need to increase the complexity over time as this is my first foray into attempting imaging. And I already had quite the night as you’ll soon discover.
 

So, I got the tripod as level as the tiny spirit levels on tripod and mount would allow, and then balanced the mount. I opted to get focus before polar alignment, as Polaris was in a very light-polluted part of the sky, and quickly located a bright star. The built-in Bhatinov mask worked well coupled with Live View, and I managed to get what looked like very good focus. I even remembered to remove the mask 😃. 
 

On to polar alignment which did not go as well. Firstly, the way the mount attaches to the tripod, regardless of which mounting lugs I line up, the trailing leg is right where I need to be to look through the polar scope, and it is almost impossible to get a look without banging the leg. I need to drill 3 more holes in the mounting plate to alleviate this problem. Also, I wasted about 5 minutes trying to figure out why the polar scope reticule wouldn’t illuminate. I knew the battery was fully charged, so started faffing about with the buttons trying to turn the brightness up. It was then that I remembered that the scope only illuminates when the mount is in the “home” position. Duh! To add to the confusion, the reticule looked nothing like the one on the PS Align Pro app, in spite of the fact that I had previously selected my mount in the options, and it looked fine last time out. For some reason the app had decided to not bother saving my preferences, and had reverted to some default reticule. I chose mine again and continued. Finally, I was able to get as best an alignment as I could with the clambering over the tripod leg problem. 
 

I had already discovered prior that adding a ball head into the mix made the whole thing too precarious, and subject to vibration from the slightest thing, so that was omitted. Consequently, it made locating, and framing the subject that much trickier as neither of the axis are as butter smooth as I would like when clutch is released, and bolts slackened off.  I would have liked to have had a crack at Pleiades, as this is my favourite portion of the sky. And also, I want it to be my first proper project. However, it was way too close to a very bright moon, so I abandoned that notion. Plus, this was only a test run, so I could look elsewhere. Well, actually, with very restricted views, a light-polluted north, a tree-blocked south, a house blocked west, and overhead wiped out by the moon, I only had variants of east still available to me 😂. The Orion Nebula looked wonderful in the southeast, so I settled on that.

So, next problem was actually framing it. With my DSLR attached to the telescope, it suddenly dawned on me that I only had Live View to aid me, as I had completely overlooked a finder scope. In my excitement of late, all of my attention has been on basing everything around the ASIair, which, as I stated earlier, had stayed in the box for this session. So I battled with the, less than smooth, adjustment, trying hard not to knock the rig out of polar alignment. After much fiddling, I managed to get my target framed perfectly. I took a test shot of 30 seconds, and was quite pleased with the result so forged ahead.

This is where the night truly went south......  I set up the intervalometer to give me 15 shots of 90 seconds. I didn’t want to get greedy with longer exposures as I wasn’t entirely happy how the polar alignment had gone. So I clicked the start button, and off it went. Well, actually it didn’t. The intervalometer was showing all of the right numbers, beeps and flashes but the camera lay dormant. I messed with the settings on both intervalometer and camera, but could not find the root cause. I almost threw the towel in, but then decided to check the connection. The little rubber flap was getting pinched by the jack plug, preventing full insertion.  Promptly moved it and tried again.

I had  opted for a delay of 3 seconds between photos. This, I think, was the cause of my problems. After each shot I was a little concerned that the camera wasn’t giving me a quick preview of the photo like it normally does. But, as I had no experience of what to expect, figured that maybe it was just a quirk of using Bulb Mode coupled with a sequence of images. I went back into the house as it was exceptionally cold and let it do it’s thing. Nipped out again when it had finished, popped the lens cap on, and fired off the sequence again for the darks. Finally, I rattled off a load of bias frames and then came back inside like a kid on Xmas day.

I put the SD card into my laptop, barely able to contain my excitement. Imagine my dismay when every single photo was just pure black. Not a single star on any of them. I couldn’t figure out what the problem was. I tried messing about with the light frames, but there was not one jot of light to be had. Then I figured that the camera must have died, so popped the lens onto it and fired a few regular shots with no problem. Then, I hooked up the intervalometer, and pointed the camera at the dining table and pressed the button to begin shooting. All the right beeps and flashes, but no actual results. Then, still puzzled by the lack of preview offered between shots, I decided to increase the interval from 3 to 10 seconds, and re-ran the sequence. Suddenly I was getting previews and final images.
 

I’m thinking that the camera needs more time to process what it has just done than the 3 seconds I was allowing it. At least I hope that’s what the problem was, otherwise I’m going to have more grief-riddled nights. So, before venturing out again, I need to adapt the tripod so that I can swivel the mount 60 degrees, sort out a finder scope and a means of attaching it, and be sure that the camera is going to perform it’s duties properly.
 

And that, dear readers, is how not to do it 😂.
 

Actually, I don’t mind too much, as it’s all a learning curve. And I feel like I picked up quite a few valuable lessons last night. Onwards and upwards

Edited January 24, 2021 by Ande
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[Delboy_Hog]

Hey Ande,

Sorry to hear of the frustrations, but nicely done on pushing through.  I've had to accept that (for now at least) astrophotography is a journey more of constant learning than of capturing stunning photos! 

EVERY night something new seems to crop up (and my experiences of the ASIair suggest you'll have more learning soon!)...if it's not some tiny, seemingly insignificant setting in some menu on the technology, it's the slightly heavy-handed adjustment of the kit post-polar alignment, or the seeing / temperature change that means you need to restart, refocus, then reframe, then change the battery again, then find a new target because yours is now in the light pollution, then adjust the guiding settings because you're looking at a different part of the sky, then re-polar align because you knocked something etc etc...  

As you say, keep sticking with it and trying to figure things out.  I've recently been more determined not to pack it in when things that appear to be showstoppers that make no sense show up.  Even last night I was out cursing the kit and being tempted to throw the whole lot over the neighbours fence and be done with it!  And while I have very few decent images to show for my efforts over the last few months, I'm now at a point where I think I've seen and googled how to resolve almost any issue that crops up, have established a routine for setting things up accurately, and am on the cusp of producing a reasonable image!

On those (for me) rare nights where everything comes together and works well, it is a truly wonderful hobby and the rewards are amazing.  But by god do you have to work for it! 😁

All the best and look forward to seeing how you get on over the coming days / weeks!

[Ande]

@Delboy_Hog Thanks for the encouraging words, and the reassurance that I’m not alone. And yes, a quick fly-tipping session of Astro gear over next door’s fence did seem mighty appealing at several stages 😂

[AstroVagabond]

Enjoyed reading your write up! I'm a beginner having been at this for just 30 days. I had a good night last night and finally got my autoguiding going. It challenged me for three nights but I had the breakthrough last evening.

My issue was my guide scope was not properly focused. Sometimes I'm dense. 😃 For several nights I'd center my Zenithstar 61 on a star, I'd take and image and the star looked good. Then I would look at the same star through my guide scope camera and it was like 5 times larger than the view my Zenithstar 61 was showing.

Finally last night it dawned on me that my Zenithstar has a focal length of 380mm. My guide scope has a focal length of 120mm. The star seen through my guide scope should not be bigger, it should appear smaller then my Zenithstar. Doh! So I adjusted the backfocus on my guide scope and wouldn't you know the star in the guide scope was now smaller than the star seen through my main scope! PHD2 was then able to complete its calibration and start guiding.

What I'm finding as a beginner is there are soooooo many things to be knowledgeable about and keep track of. As a beginner you just don't know what you don't know. 😃

Look forward to hearing about your future progress!

[Ande]

@AstroVagabond Glad you sorted out your auto guiding issue. That’s a hurdle I’ve yet to negotiate. But it’s imminent. It sounds as if you are making pretty good progress. There is so much to learn, and then remember to apply, that it can be close to overwhelming. I think a few more nights of error and mishap then it might start to come together. Hopefully 😂

[AstroVagabond]

4 minutes ago, Ande said:

can be close to overwhelming

Yes I have felt that feeling! 😃 You speak the truth .. 

[wxsatuser]

That's AP for you, anything can go wrong and it will. 😁