Someone wants me to invest in remote imaging

[tomato]

No moon tonight , blowing a gale but that's OK and it could be clear!

But... The eye of the storm has decided to track South a little bit so the edge of the clouds refuses to clear my location. 

I wonder what the weather is like in Spain?

[saac]

 

[tomato]

The Almighty is keeping the clouds nicely clear of Pixel Skies.

"Put your hand in your pocket Tomato, you know it makes sense."

[DaveS]

I'm imaging tonight even though it's blowing a hoolie, just about safe to open the roof. This is a time when I wish I'd pushed the boat out for a dome despite the cost, which was frightening.

[tomato]

Well, I have patiently waited for the cloud edge to move East of me, it is just about there but lo! There is another front racing in over Ireland at break neck speed, giving me a clear corridor of around 30 minutes I reckon, so that's me done for this session, the seeing was cr*p anyway.

[Paul M]

It seems entirely possible to me that the 3 nights I got a week ago or so were likely my last of the year!

I'm just ending an 18 day shift break and was hoping for bit more than that while I'm off work. I can't even maintain match fitness, let alone advance my imaging.

Remote imaging sounds great, and I've looked into it. But I like making things work for myself and perhaps I'd feel that any remote data I collect would be a collaboration. Maintaining and managing the equipment is a big part of it, the hard part maybe. But I find the acquisition more enjoyable than the processing, therefore I'd be denying myself the best part! 

[Fegato]

You were probably better off in the cloud! It was clear here in SW Wales for a a few hours, but 20mph wind with c 36mph gusts. My rig was out and my guiding was often at 2" RMS, and although it's very heavy, I did wonder about it blowing over!  I only shoot 30s subs so I'm hoping I might get 1 in 3 usable, but we'll see. My best bet would probably be to enter the Animation Challenge with an animation of my dancing and elongating stars, but I think that challenge is over!

[tomato]

Fortunately my rig is inside a dome so strong winds rarely give me a problem. However, some  gusts last night did give me sausage stars during the focusing  routines which was a headache.

[DaveS]

Of the LRGB sequence I started, the 3 hours of Luminance were OK, but nowhere near enough, the 6 Red subs were OK, but only 5 of the Green were anything like OK. The sky had clouded over by that time so the last Green sub was a write off and I shut down and went to bed before the Blue run got going.

I have no idea when I might be able to collect any more data so here is the result of 3 hour Lum on HCG 10, ASI 533MM, 600 sec subs, Gain 100, Offset 60. WBPP, BlurX, Masked Stretch, NoiseX in PI, then a gentle Histogram Stretch in AstroArt  8

[tomato]

This is a fine start Dave. I tried again tonight but after the shutter closed twice due to cloudbursts I got the message and abandoned the session.

Still thinking about trialling FLO’s remote imaging in the new year if they can provide an 8” RC rig.

[DaveS]

I'm seriously wondering if UK astronomy has any future with the increasing light pollution, which only illuminates the ever present cloud.

I can't see any more useable clear nights through December, then it just gets worse.

[tomato]

Alas, local light pollution is getting worse for me too. When I moved to this new estate it was still under construction and I just had to put up with the LED street lights. Now every neighbour seems to have motion activated back garden flood lights and pets, so as soon as one switches off another one comes on. It does get quieter after midnight but at this time of year that’s almost 6 hrs of imaging time lost.

Sorry, whinge over.

[DaveS]

I managed to get 3 hours RGB with Baader Bessel photometric filters. Baader still has a problem with halos. Still need Flats and Flat Darks for the colour channels.

SPCC colour in PI.