What to do on a night when the clouds keep rolling by...

[dannybgoode]

I had something of an epiphany tonight.  Cloud free nights are a real treat but rare and in the past I have wasted them by not being prepared and then getting frustrated when nothing works.  In fact this has really been the main reason why I got so demotivated last year.  So tonight I decided to take the opposite approached.  The forecast has been a little sketchy but there have been some good clear periods coupled with times of fast moving but broken cloud and that has been forecast to go on through the night.  

I also realised I had a lot to do as I am giving NINA a go instead of Astroberry/KStars so have taken the opportunity to give everything a run through.  And you know what?  Quite a lot hasn't gone quite right but then as I never planned for tonight to be a session instead of being frustrated I have been really pleased with what I've got done.  NINA is now working, I have finally got on top of my autofocuser, the PPBA works a treat, slewing and plate solving is all go and as a bonus the clouds have cleared for a bit now so I am even getting a little bit of imaging done.

Chalk all of this up as a success  . Now I just need to get pulse guiding working which for some reason it doesn't want to and just keep making sur things work each and every time I want them to.

So the moral of the story is don't waste a far from perfect night - there is still plenty you can get done... 

[dannybgoode]

And this has always been a dream target of mine.  Not difficult, not rare but one of the ones that got me wanting to image in the first place.  Plus I have promised my boy a copy for his wall.  Plenty of high cloud and generally poor seeing but at least starting to gather some data on it.

This is a single 300s Ha sub...