Troubles shared... and a couple of Sharpless nebulae

[Fegato]

Obviously this winter has been terrible on the weather front, certainly the worst here in my 8 years, and I won't go into that again. But with very limited opportunities to image, I then found things were going wrong when I did try, which was getting me down somewhat. My guiding had collapsed into a mess - 1.5" and worse RMS (versus a usual 0.6-0.9"), with both RA and DEC not seeming to want to respond adequately to guiding pulses, but I couldn't for the life of me see why. Also my recent flats have not been working very well. And then my ZWO camera started playing up for the first time on my last imaging run - 4.5 hours worth of images with large unexposed (black) bands across them in varying positions.

Weather closed in again, and I just left it, and for the first time in a while wasn't even looking at the night time weather forecast. Time off helps I guess, as does a short holiday in the South of France, and I've now stripped everything down, checked my mount belt tension and gear meshing, cleaned up all my glass, and put it all back together again. I'll have another go when I can, but I'm not impatient to do so right now.

Anyway - I produced an awful looking Sh2-280 and 282 image from early in that last run at the beginning of the month. The flats had made a mess of it. So I took some more flats with longer exposures yesterday, and they worked better. So here it is - some sort of an image. Nothing special - some stars and nebulosity, and I've tried not to over-stretch and saturate to find something that's not there.

RASA 11 on CEM120, ASI2400MC Pro, 144 x 30s

[Fegato]

Looking at it on here, maybe needs a bit more contrast, black point adjustment. And not sure if all those colours are real or "invented" by my OSC processing...

[Elp]

Looks good, as you say you could bring the midpoint down to reduce the black point level.

How are you controlling your setup?

[Anne S]

2 hours ago, Fegato said:

Looking at it on here, maybe needs a bit more contrast, black point adjustment. And not sure if all those colours are real or "invented" by my OSC processing...

I'm in Carmarthenshire too, managed 2 images last autumn and 2 at 2 Kelling starparties. Just as well we spent 6 weeks in Portugal with 9 images.

Though I've probably jinxed it now, bought a new 80mm triplet. It'll probably rain until Xmas!

Nice image there. I hope you've fixed your issues. I dread to think what my equipment will do when it's clear again. We have washed the observatory in between the rain though!

Edited March 27 by Anne S

[AMcD]

I think the weather and the inherent complexities of the hobby conspire sometimes to leave us feeling the way you describe.  

As the weather gets worse, the pressure to extract good data from the small number of good nights increases.  

When multiple things go wrong in this context, as they inevitably do in this hobby in which all aspects are interconnected and highly technical, the negative impact on us is amplified by the decreasing window of opportunity.  

I have certainly noticed a new twinge of anxiety when powering up my equipment on a rare clear night, hoping that it is not a night to be ruined electronic or mechanical gremlins.  I am not sure I want my hobby to become a source of stress.

As you say, a break is sometimes a good thing and helps lend perspective.

For my part, I think your image is great.  The colours are subtly done and it has a wonderful natural look.

[Fegato]

12 hours ago, Elp said:

Looks good, as you say you could bring the midpoint down to reduce the black point level.

How are you controlling your setup?

thanks, yes I will try some tweaks when I get a moment. I use NINA to control everything, installed on a mini PC on the tripod tray, and PHD2 for guiding. NINA works well for me, no issues with that. 

[Fegato]

11 hours ago, Anne S said:

I'm in Carmarthenshire too, managed 2 images last autumn and 2 at 2 Kelling starparties. Just as well we spent 6 weeks in Portugal with 9 images.

Though I've probably jinxed it now, bought a new 80mm triplet. It'll probably rain until Xmas!

Nice image there. I hope you've fixed your issues. I dread to think what my equipment will do when it's clear again. We have washed the observatory in between the rain though!

Hi Anne - 6 weeks in Portugal sounds good! Having said that, in desperation I ordered some data from Roboscopes in Extremedura in December, and the weather there seems to have been pretty poor since then. 15 hours worth, and the last 3 hours are still outstanding with the target fast disappearing for the season!

Robin

[Anne S]

I know how to bring clear skies, switch my Ritchey Chretien in the dome for my Lunt50 ready for the summer! That'll make sure there's permacloud daytime and clear nights!  I like your profile picture, I want to image that but it was too far to the north in Portugal. Maybe I can do it when we go back next February.

The weather was patchy in Jan and Feb, runs of up to 5 nights interspersed with hazy or wet and windy ones. At least it stays dark longer in the Spring and Summer. It was good to escape most of our winter! When sunny temperatures got up to 19 or 29 degrees in the day time.