It Was All So Perfect A Night Until...

[wesdon1]

Hi all, last night everything was going perfectly, I'd setup before sunset, then did the usual PA ( with my new IOptron IPolar, which I've already posted about. Incredible ) 3 star alignment, got PHD2 running with sub 1 arc sec. tracking. Slewed to M101, plugged into my DSLR my shutter release cable. Dials in my number of subs/duration for each sub etc, presses start...and nothing happened!!?? To save you the tedious bits of everything I tried in vain to resolve the issue, I eventually found a way to get the SRC to start commanding my camera. Only issue, I had to sit there all night manually pressing the SRC after every single sub!! ALL NIGHT!! A total of 2 hours 19 minutes/60 sec subs, so 139 nine times in total I had to wait for each exposure to end, then press button manually again, for two hours and forty minutes ( adding in the time it took me to hear camera stop, grab the SRC again and press button ) It was gruelling! My goodness I was furious! LOL. 

Despite that nightmare, I still loved getting outside for first time in months! I just pray all the tedious brain numbing effort was worth it when I process my data in couple days! LOL

As a side note, I think if you're not prepared to accept that this hobby can be a nightmare some nights, that you will have nights that are simply cruel to you, then you're in the wrong hobby! That is something I've learned during my circa 16 months doing astro!

Happy hunting and clear skies! 

Edited April 18 by wesdon1
missed a bit

[Bivanus]

Never surrender ! 

[MartianHill]

Wow 😱👍

[Elp]

You do have to stick to it. Half the time I'm experimenting with different equipment, did so last night and did 3 hours via a newly acquired camera body. It works but it's noisy, and too short of a lens used, so the data will generally be unusable mainly due to the FL. Onto the next experiment!

[wesdon1]

15 hours ago, Elp said:

You do have to stick to it. Half the time I'm experimenting with different equipment, did so last night and did 3 hours via a newly acquired camera body. It works but it's noisy, and too short of a lens used, so the data will generally be unusable mainly due to the FL. Onto the next experiment!

@Elp Definitely mate. Some would call us mad...I'd say we're simply passionate about the hobby!

You're not alone there my friend, my data data turned out usable ( just ) but in no way is it adequate recompense for the grueling effort I made! LOL ( but then I say to myself...my recompense is the wonderful unique hobby itself, not just how good my data is at the end of the night! ☺️ )