How long does it take you to capture your first photon?

[iceman]

Hi guys

Just out of interest, for the imaging guys, I wonder how long it takes you to capture your first "real" photon.. i'm not talking about photons captured during drift aligning or checking focus, etc.

I'm talking about the first real exposure that makes up your final image.

And I'm wanting you to take into account the time from looking outside and deciding to start imaging, to the point where you take that first real exposure - so including setting up, putting everything together, drift aligning, focus, etc.

Obviously those with permanent setups and observatories should have a much quicker setup time than people who have to set everything up from scratch each time.

It'd be great if you also took the time to explain your setup process - what steps do you go through from starting the process, to capturing that first exposure.

[iceman]

I voted 30-60 minutes, but in reality it takes me about an hour, sometimes more. I really want to get it to 30-45 minutes.

I don't have a permanent setup, so once I decide to start imaging I have to:
- Get the mount out of the shed and put it on the pavers with marks on the ground giving me a rough polar alignment
- Put the telescope(s) on it
- Put the 350D on the WO 0.8x and in the ED80, put the DMK in the guidescope, plug all the cables in (DMK cable, shoestring GPUSB, long exposure cable for 350D, USB download cable for 350D, AC adapter for 350D)
- Start drift aligning. This step takes the longest, anywhere from 15-75 minutes depending on how accurate I try and get it. I drift align using the guidescope + DMK and watching a star on an on-screen reticle. It always takes longer out in the field, rather than at home on the pavers where I know it's already quite close.
- Find the object I want to image, slew the telescope to it and orient the camera/scope for composition.
- Use ImagesPlus to check focus (usually < 5 minutes)
- Use PHD Guiding to get a guide star, calibrate and start guiding.
- Start capturing.

I sooo wish I had a permanent setup. It would save me about 15-25 minutes just from the setup stage - plugging everything in and getting rough polar alignment.

[Glenhuon]

30 - 60 mins for me now, but before I got the hang of drift alignment probably 1-2 hours. Initial setup about 20 mins, as I don't have a lot of gear to put together. Quite often leave the mount covered outside if it doesn't look like rain, and just take in the OTA, eyepieces and laptop (yard isn't visible from the road and few know about my astronomy hobby).

Bill

[Dennis]

For the side-by-side set up with separate guide scope, over 2 hours for me if I have to assemble my observing hutch and gather the various bits of astro and imaging kit from all parts of the house.

If I use the SBIG ST7 and not a side by side guide scope, between 1 and 1 ½ hours.

If I leave the hutch and tripod/mount out overnight, I can be up and running in 30 mins.

Cheers

Dennis

[Terry B]

Now with my new observatory it is much quicker.
The process is:
Decide it is dark and clear. 10sec
Change into suitable attire for being outside in Armidale. Brrrrrrr- 5 mins
Collect my camera and laptop and walk to shed. 1 min
Pick up 12v battery and walk 100m to observatory- 2 mins
Roll off roof, boot up computer and start EQMOD.
Load saved alignement stars, and slew to a bright one. 10 mins total
Check focus with live view function.:) 2 mins
Slew to what I wan't to image.:D

All up much less than 30 mins.

[g__day]

About 10 minutes.

Walk out, open observatory, remove dust covers and lens caps, power on mount - recall last pointing settings, slew to a reference star clsoe to where I want to start imaging and adjust calibration stars if pointing is more that 2 arc minutes off, boot PC.

That takes about 5-7 minutes.

Start PHD, do a calibration run - say 3 minutes. Capture first image - say 2-3 minutes, check all is okay, start VNC server and script with DSLR shutter a imaging run for one target - e.g. 10 * 2 - 20 minute shots of target - walk away and close lab.

Start VNC client indoors - play with kids - check everything is okay every 1/2 hour or so. Once family goes to bed - either stack and process some images on PC inside whilst I select next target - or watch tv or DVDs while the gear does the work and save image processing for another day.

At 2am - take some darks, re-set gear, power down, cover everything up, send all images to network storage and lock up - go to bed! :)

[Alchemy]

longer than it should....

i open up just as soon as sun is beyond horizon. give it an hour to cool down etc,during that time

1.i will bring up the computer gear if nessesary
2.plug in all cables
3.once first stars appear check camera focus( it should be 23.2mmout)
but do a couple of test shots anyway
4. turn on heater strips for guidescope and accessories
5.Check pole alignment once pole stars are visible
6. check computer for target location (non goto here)
7. align to requried target.... (this can take a while to get centred etc)
couple of test shots for composition
8. turn on and calibrate guider.
9. firing away with 6 min exposures.

hopefull imaging once fully dark 1- 1 1/2 hrs ish

[[1ponders]]

If I'm at home and using the same spot;

check polar alignment, 15 min.
setup AN, coupla minutes.
select object and center (depends but normally no longer than 5 min)
focus, coupla minutes ;)


Maybe a tad longer that 30 min ;)

[marc4darkskies]

Here's my checklist:

Open the dome shutter
Power up the observatory laptop
Establish a remote desktop link with control room PC
Power up the camera, establish link and set temperature (CCDSoft)
Point scope at the Zenith (Tak Temma mounts assume that’s where the scope is pointing on power up).
Power up the mount & establish a link (The Sky).
Power up the dome, establish link (Automadome) and “home” it
Start dome tracking
Select a bright star within cooee of the target and slew to it
Centre the star in the finderscope and Synch (TheSky)
Slew to the target and re-synch if necessary
Focus using CCDSoft (usually a 10-15 minute task – I don’t have motorised focusing)
Make sure the Field of View indicator in TheSky matches what the camera is seeing. This may require fine pointing adjustments to position the target in the field using short exposures with the camera. Re-synch if necessary
If this is NOT a continuation of a previous session, select a guide star to get the best framing and rotate the camera as necessary. This step is skipped if it’s a continuation session.
If this is NOT a continuation of a previous session, slew to a suitable bright star in close proximity of the target and calibrate the mount (CCDSoft). This step is skipped if it’s a continuation session.
Curse the clouds that saw me setting up and decided to move in closer.
Go inside (to the control room) and take a dark exposure
While the dark is underway, set up CCDSoft for the light exposures.
After the dark exposure, commence autoguiding and monitor for a minute to make sure all is well
Commence the imaging runRight now for a continuation session I’m finding that this takes no more 20-30 mins with focussing being the longest step (at long FLs temp has a significant effect on focus). If it’s a brand new target, I’d add another 10 minutes or so (assuming the camera is already attached).

Cheers, Marcus

[EzyStyles]

use to take me a good 2 hours before getting my first photon until i managed all my cables correctly. before i had to unroll all my cables etc.

I turned my small coffee table (has wheels) into my "main control table". I taped all the nessisary cables around the table legs etc so all i have to do is put my laptop on it, plug in the cables already taped and thats it. i dont know how to explain this any easier. :shrug: hope you get what i mean.

that saved me a good 30 mins with the cables and a good 30-45minutes on focusing so right now roughly 1 1/2 hours.

yessss i need an observatory as im starting to feel my back carrying the EQ6, 10" newt etc out and in all the time.

[leon]

For me usually about 30 minutes or even a bit less, depends if i stuff up the process.

The set up can be fired up at a moments notice, however i let it reach ambient temp for a couple of hours before i start to do anything.

Ok, when it is dark enough, switch on the Gemini and send scope to a star of my choice, center it in the Tak finder scope, hit sync, focus on that star with eye only, i don't use any software at all, never have.

Send scope to desired object, and just let it run while i turn on the lappy, take one image at the length of time of the ones that i am going to take, check it on the lappy for focus, position, noise levels, more/less time, etc.

When happy, put mount in Photo Mode, set Canon Remote to length, amount of images, and gap, open Phd, find guide star, and callibrate, once done, press remote and walk away, well not really, but it is of and running.

Leon :thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

over 2 hours by the time I set up then drift align and then get the camera setup etc. crazy. cant wait for an under 20 minute setup

[Aster]

just on 2 hours before the first test image is taken.

[iceman]

Glad to see i'm not the only one that takes ages to get going.

Dealing with the frustration of spending 2 hours setting up only to be beaten by clouds - now that's something else altogether!

[Benny L]

bout 15 minutes..

#1 go to the dome
#2 switch everything on
#3 start camera cooling
#4 align telescope
#5 sync in The Sky & Tpoint
#6 start shooting

[jase]

:lol: ~ two hours, but usually much more (and yes, I have a permanent set up). My approach is methodical. I typically spend a couple of hours alone in TheSky determining how I want to frame the object it question. Should I do a mosaic etc. Then plan the acquisition times to shoot the blue, Ha or Luminance frames when the object is high. Blue in particular to minimise atmospheric extinction. Finally create the acquisition script which I then upload into ACP. I have a list of targets, times, camera rotation values etc. for varies targets based on the season.

I guess if we don't include the planning, then the time would be considerably shorter. Simply upload the script, cool the camera, sync the pointing model via a plate solve and I'm away. Probably 10 mins at most.

[Zuts]

:(, how i wish my times were like that!

Paul

[Benny L]

lol occasionally i botch it up and spend the next 1/2 hour trying to figure out what button i pressed to make it go crazy :whistle:

[seeker372011]

don't have a permanent set up-2 hours plus by the time i get everything working
set up
drift align-takes a longish time
star align
slew to target(pre planned)
get autoguiding working (this sometimes is a cinch sometimes is a right royal pain the batoota)'
focus with SLR focus
trial jpg image
slew around if necessary
set camera to RAW
look up and find cloud everywhere
say some rude things
repeat next "clear" night

[Ric]

I voted an hour to two hours.

Get the scope out and set up, go through the alignment and focussing procedures. I usually double check all the cables etc at this point.

I usually now go to the list of targets that I have predecided earlier in the day and then choose which one depending on the usual factors altitude, cloud cover etc. It is then a case of some test shots to determine the best settings and then into it.

[Garyh]

Usually 30 to 60 minutes here..
If all goes well I can be away and imaging in 30min but if I have to hunt for a guidestar and the object if faint and I need some deep testshots to frame the subject then it can be over a hour before the first proper shots are taken.

[TrevorW]

yessss i need an observatory as im starting to feel my back carrying the EQ6, 10" newt etc out and in all the time.[/quote]

Eric you are a young man the excercise is good for you;

30-60 minutes before capturing an image

:D

[pjphilli]

Hi
I am one of the 1-2hours setup tragics. With the best of intentions something always seems to go wrong to add to the delay. My main whinge
is why does time seem to go twice as fast when you're out star gazing?
Oh yeah - I think I know!
Cheers Peter

[Kal]

I put in 1-2 hours. I haven't imaged with my EQ mount yet, only my alt-az LX200, but even with that I would set up in about 20 minutes but then go inside to wait an hour or so to let the optics cool down.

With my G11 I guess that waiting for the cooldown period will be replaced with the drift aligning process.

[g__day]

Now I'm down to 2-3 minutes.

I thought through my process and realised I was linking things that didn't need to done that way. You see there is a PC and Camera power-up and software initiation that is really independent of opening up the dome and powering on the telescope.

So nowadays I start the PC and Camera maybe late afternoon and check all is ready and leave the software dormant and have VNC start on boot.

Come evening I simply open the dome, remove dust covers, turn on mount and link from the Sky6. I issue my first slew to target generally from the lab (stars always seem very close to centre so I don't need to re-sync) and I shoot a 2-3 second snap just to check things all connected correctly. My focus seems to remain constant month by month and the goto's from last power on are excellent so I only have to re-synch every few months.

So by splitting tasks this way on a permanent set-up, it can be 2-3 minutes from initialising mount to imaging, slightly more if I'm doing a 10 minute or longer first exposures and want to auto-guide as PHD and MaximDL don't remember their last calibration.

To me that is the joy of a permanent set-up. Putting the hard work into getting imaging base camp established means I spend more time with the family! Now that the power on, PC- link, point and track logistics are sorted its into image processing that I thrust my quest for improvement. I presume with increased skill on the image processing side I will go back to improving focus, collimation, tracking, darks and flats trying to squeeze that last little bit more out of my set-up that I have come to realise is held up more by operator skill than equipment yet!