Observing: Trials and Tribulations

[chemistorge]

Just coming back from a week in North Devon (Bortle Class 2.3). While I saw the Milky Way with my naked eyes for the first time in six months, my attempts at astrophotography were very mixed.

At Home my imaging rig works well (Near London Bortle Class 6.4). My rig is a 130p, ASI294mc, Astroberry on Pi 4.

The night started off a bit cloudy so polar alignment was stop start. I finally got a good polar alignment of < 1 arc min. I did notice that the  latitude and azimuth adjustments were switched in ekos which was strange (didn’t get that at home). (11.30 pm)

While the clouds cleared I spent  time setting up my Canon 80D with 24 mm F2.8 lens for wide field milky was shot. For some reason I couldn’t  get focus, in fact I couldn’t see stars very well through the View finder or with a test shot….strange. So I increased my iOS and exposure and decreased aperture, still no improvement…..take camera back inside….idiot I had left a 850nm IR Pass filter on. Set up went well from there….(12.00am).

Back to main scope, set to two star alignment. Scope goes the wrong way…very strange. Humm I had previously had this when manually moving the mount with a hand controller without Ekos connected (this upsets the tracking that ekos has, namely it alters the parking position). Did the fix, which is to close down kstar/ekos without parking which resets the parked position to Polaris. Still no joy. At this point I went around in circles checking all cables the motor connections. In the process of this my USB DIY power module had the ports come unglued (only hot glue), so I had to unscrew the lid and hold while I plugged the cables in. (1 a.m.)

At this point I was getting very frustrated and tired (system works prefect at home). I then glanced at the clock on the raspberry pi, the date and time were incorrect! There was no obvious way to set the time. 
 

Turns out the Raspberry Pi doesn’t have an internal clock that runs during power down, it either updates on boot from internet, GPS or manual. 
 

All my problems with my mount were down to incorrect date and time, only a problems as I had no internet and I didn’t know it was an issue. By this time it was getting on for 2 am and I had to take down my rig as I was with my family and could stay up any longer. 
 

The rest of the week was wall to wall cloud. So no images on my asi294 in dark skies (sad).. but now I know more for next time….

 

Anybody else had a similar story of errors…..?

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Aye. Just last year before going on a mini star camp I changed mobile phones. On setting up for the life of me I couldn't get the AZGTI to goto properly. Off centre by loads every time. On arriving home I realised the Synscan app on the new phone didn't have the location sensor switched on... 

@cotterless45 saved me from observing hell on a patchy night, when I got to see M51 through his newtonian. 👍

The most patient of men, very calmly stating "Peter, that torch is a bit bright." After I forgot to turn off the red light head torch and probably blinded him for half an hour. 🙄

Not to mention the earlier tent pitching debacle. Four blokes all standing around, "That pole IS a bit stiff..." 

Edited August 7, 2021 by ScouseSpaceCadet

[Nakedgun]

Meanwhile, on the non-imaging front....

Last night I used my 12.5" dob to track down Pluto from my backyard, but could not tease it out of the gloom, alas. Last month's New Moon weekend was clouded out.

This marks two summers in a row, now,  with negative results from my place.

Will have to travel for next summer's attempt, apparently, as population growth in this area continues.

 

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