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Hunting down the Swan in an 11" scope


AndyMac

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Despite its low elevation from the UK, this should be a doddle - even from a light polluted site - and especially by someone who has been observing it for well over a decade!

So why couldn't I find it tonight? :)

Everything started alright. The sky was perfectly clear, though a little hazy. I started by testing my 'sometimes' autoguider. Yippee! It had decided to play ball this evening! :)

Next - open that badly buckled observatory roof of mine (mental note: - must get round to doing something about it before it caves in completely! :shock: ).

Anyway once the skies had darkened enough, I swung the scope round to Altair to calibrate the RA setting (being near to the celestial equator, Altair is a great star to use at this time of year). Having centered Altair I set the RA circle to 19h 50.4'. So far so good. Then for the trip south to view & then image my all-time favourite nebula, M17 - The Swan.

Quickly set the dec co-ordinate (being permanently set up, this is always near as damn it) & then moved the RA circle to read -18h 21m. A quick peek through the eyepiece revealed no sign of it. Not unusual. My manual setting circles are pretty accurate - but some fine tuning is always required. But after the best part of half an hour sweeping in RA & tweaking the dec control, I still failed to sweep it up. By now I was getting quite frustrated - and also quite alarmed at my lack of homing-in skills. If I could no longer find something as bright as M17, then was it time to call it a day???

It was then that I decided to just double check the dec control. I knew I'd set this to -16° 11' ............... or had I?? Took a couple of seconds to sink in - but I'd set it 10° out at -6° 11'. DOH! Half an hour's imaging time wasted - and on an object shortly to fall below the rooftops!

Hastily I reset the dec control. Within a few seconds the glorious view of my favourite nebula sailed through the FOW. Phew! What a relief. Quickly I located my usual guidestar, got the autoguider to pick it up & managed to grab a 30-minute exposure before M17 slid below the rooftops for another night.

Oh joy & happiness! :)

Now all I need is for the new emulsion I was testing to come back from the developers showing NO red sensitivity at all. :)

But thinking like that is like saying that the glass is half empty. :o

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Rog, is it necessarily 'lazy' to find & centre an object during one of those infreqent clear nights that we get in the UK? Or is it just making good use of your imaging time? Had I got GOTO I could have managed a composite of M17 last night which would have bound to have made for a better overall image (assuming this film I was trying out is Ha sensitive).

In the 'star hopping' Vs 'GOTO' debate, I have always sat on the fence. My view is 'use the method that gives you the most enjoyment & keeps your interest in this nutty hobby of ours'. :)

Rog, if my image comes back with half the detail of that superb M17 you posted a few weeks back, I'll be well chuffed. :)

Astroman, great to hear that an experienced 'guru' such as yourself has made the same error! Just goes to show that we're all human! :)

Posted my film off this morning - so should get it back @midweek.

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There is always something that goes wrong during an observing/imaging session - I'm just pleased that it was something that was easy to rectify! If the Auto guider had been playing up again then thats much harder to solve...

Look forward to seeing the results Andy, back mid week you say?

Ant

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Got my film back today Ant. This was a new emulsion which I was trying out. To say it was a complete flop was putting it mildly. :) Not even a hint of the Swan or the Dumbell - though I know that my tracker guided them perfectly for about half an hour at a time.

I think I shall stick to my tried & trusted E200 in future & leave the testing of new emulsions to others with access to better skies.

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You didn't get enything on the Dumbell with a 30 minute exposure? Blimey thats sounds like a Rubbish film...

Which film was it so that we can all avoid it?

Sorry to hear about that, lets hope that they don't disco the E200 any time soon.

Ant

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I'm well stocked up with E200. If I ever hear that it's to be discontinued, I'll place a mass order with Jessops.

The Rubbish film I used was mentioned on this forum ('One for Andy, maybe' thread in the Equipment section, page 3) by Mr Dyson. As it had the word 'Elite' in the title, I was keen to give it a go (plus it was dirt cheap). A link to the film can be found here

Still, you live & learn. Both M17 & M27 will be making appearances in the sky long after E200 film & I have disappeared off the face of the Earth - (hopefully in that order)!

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I'm well stocked up with E200. If I ever hear that it's to be discontinued, I'll place a mass order with Jessops.

Andy,

I am probably teaching Grandma to suck eggs but, its probably worth mentioning...

If you are going to stock up on film it is best to keep it refrigerated.  Film should be treated as food in that it lasts a lot longer than its expiry date if kept cold and sealed in its packaging.  Also, film goes off quickest after being exposed to light so, have it processed soon after exposure. 

Steve :)

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Thanks Steve. Yes the film is always kept refrigerated for precisely the reasons you mention.

Ant, for some reason when I load the CD into the PC I get a 'this drive is inaccesible' message. However, I can tell you that the DSO's are total blanks. I've just rechecked the setting on my SLR & it was definitely set to 'B'.

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The only stars I can see came from my Perseid meteor shots. However, they are very far & few between, even though the 10 minute (or so) shots were taken at an f/ratio of around f2.8.

Just ordered a new roof as I've noticed that the buckled one I have on is now beginning to split! :shock:

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