It's going to be one of those nights

[JSeaman]

I just need an hour of blue data. That's all. 

So I set everything up, slewed to my target in CDC and it was offset by a good margin on the starmap, tried another target and got the same. Synched the time to make sure everything was good, same issue. Opened up the "Setup"-->"Date/Time" to make sure BST was enabled and it jumps to the target all of a suden. Close the window and it jumps back. Then after a few minutes it seemed to sort it's life out and jump back again.

During all this, at no point was the camera seeing the star it was supposed to be on. 

So I decide I'll plate solve on where I'm pointing - astronomy.net, 4 attempts, 4 failures after >10 minutes. Doesn't seem to be working.

I downloaded all sky plate solver - it now wants to install 4GB of maps before it can plate solve.

Everything has been perfect for a little while, BST comes along and it all falls down. Something has cocked up for sure, I think it is CDC but it's going to be a pita tonight!

[JSeaman]

Now back to slewing in the wrong place:

 

[smashing]

If it is any consolation...you've just made me realise why my go-to was being stupid earlier on...laptop hasn't changed time *facepalm*

[JSeaman]

At least something good has come of it then!

 

Eventually (6th effort) I plate solved and the scope has magically moved by a decent amount in both RA and DEC since it was tucked away a few days ago in a locked observatory. I also just lost all comms for no reason at all and then my phone died while I was setting the shut down timers. 

Suffice to say, a terrible night but I have just started taking my first picture ... in time for the moon to come bounding in like a mischievous rogue to ruin what little consolation was left of imaging. PAH! Stupid hobby

[JSeaman]

I eventually got everything set up and left it going last night, I came down this morning excitedly expecting 6 hours of data ... it stopped after 30 minutes.

Definitely one of those nights, I think I give up for now, this is as much as I managed

[smashing]

59 minutes ago, JSeaman said:

I eventually got everything set up and left it going last night, I came down this morning excitedly expecting 6 hours of data ... it stopped after 30 minutes.

Definitely one of those nights, I think I give up for now, this is as much as I managed

Unfortunately I had to pack it up around 1am (nursing a coffee at work right now...well the home office anyway), battled the mount and meridian flips to get some data but not had chance to look at it...for 30 minutes that's very very good, what are you using? Hubble?

[JSeaman]

Well, thirty minutes on blue and only 15 green so really not enough but I lost the battle last night and figured I would just use what I have. Hope you have more success than me!

[DaveS]

Yeah, we've all had nights like that. And if it's any consolation (Perhaps not much) even stupidly expensive kit can still fall over for no apparent reason.

And don't even mention network connection issues with laptops not seeing the remote PCs, again for no obvious reason.

Just Sodd's Law at work.

[JSeaman]

It was a bad one for sure, I'm hoping new Lindy cables and IP rated Ethernet will make the difference, should know by tomorrow!