Sad face! 😞

[TerryJ]

9 hours ago, Rustang said:

Thanks guys, APT plate solving has been working a treat for a while so that's why I'm annoyed and confused that it wasn't playing ball last night. I've also always managed to get pretty close to target for plate solving so I don't know why that's wasn't working either. Maybe I'm missing a new setting or something. 

I had frustrating time last night. After months of APT platesolving working  ASTAP kept failing. Three hours later I went into the settings for Point Craft and ticked the box to use PlateSolve2 for near solving and APT solved without problem thereafter. So not sure if there's an ASTAP problem or not.

Anyway, keep on going.

Terry.

Edited February 26, 2021 by TerryJ
Change of text

[smr]

Oh yes another problem I had last night was the mount behaving erratically, or basically, not responding at all. I tried slewing to a bright star to focus and it wasn't having it, then started slewing off to random parts of the Sky.... fortunately I figured out what it was quite quickly - I hadn't tightened the Dec up at all, completely loose, after balancing. In the 3-4 years I've been doing Astrophotography I've never once forgotten to tighten the dec clutch!

Yes with regard to focusing, forgot to mention that 1:1 image is good, I don't really use the magnifying tool in APT other than to check the roundness of Stars when imaging occasionally. 

Just ordered my first Autofocuer, the ZWO EAF, so there's more learning curve! But I can't wait to have a fully automated setup! 

Edited February 26, 2021 by smr

[Rustang]

Test night number two with new kit is going well. Still some issues to sort but all in all a lot more positive. I've managed to fire off my first few 10min exposures in HA and from I can see the stars are nice and round. Seeing doesn't seem great, the moon and very twinkly stars but the guiding is holding in there. I'm going to get an hour of HA just as a test then I might capture the moon for a laugh. Thanks for all the motivation to keep going everyone, we probably all need it from time to time. 👍

[tooth_dr]

2 minutes ago, Rustang said:

Test night number two with new kit is going well. Still some issues to sort but all in all a lot more positive. I've managed to fire off my first few 10min exposures in HA and from I can see the stars are nice and round. Seeing doesn't seem great, the moon and very twinkly stars but the guiding is holding in there. I'm going to get an hour of HA just as a test then I might capture the moon for a laugh. Thanks for all the motivation to keep going everyone, we probably all need it from time to time. 👍

Please share the images, looking forward to seeing them.  I really enjoyed using this camera, and it never let me down, producing great images, especially in Ha where I felt it really excelled.

[Rustang]

4 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

Please share the images, looking forward to seeing them.  I really enjoyed using this camera, and it never let me down, producing great images, especially in Ha where I felt it really excelled.

Thanks Adam, if I manage to get anything worth showing i will definitely share, happy just to call tonight a successful test run if anything though 😊

[John Nodding]

I’ve been frustrated for over 20 years not being in a position to viably to do what I wanted with this hobby. I took the plunge last year to buy some decent kit...then the frustration really started. I have many nights where I bang my head against the virtual wall (it’s all the rage), but when it’s right, it’s great. I try to learn from my mistakes but mainly I try to learn from all the great advice on here. Everyones ‘journey’ (🤮) is different but the rewards are amazing. I try to remind myself every day’s a school day. I use others on here as inspiration for the time when stuff goes wrong. I’m rubbish at processing, but still know more than I did yesterday. 
 

👍🏻 Noddy

Edited February 27, 2021 by John Nodding

[Paz]

I don't do astro photography myself but from the  occasional post that I read I do admire the determination and community spirit that photography people tend to have.