Thanks to everyone for your encouraging words
I feel the need to go back to basics and relearn some of the procedures I was using in the past that produced, what I thought, reasonable results.
+1 to all replies regarding the atmospheric conditions. The night may have been worse than similar conditions I have imaged in the past only I could not see it... my eyes aren't as good as they used to be (comes with age unfortunately, I am told
).
Michael: "I know you said you used a Batinov Mask but did you lock the focus in?"
Yes, focus definitely double checked and securely locked.
Glen: are you just interpreting the Ha signal as fogging? I believe you need a lot more subs
A lot of my subs are in Ha and I've taken many in the past with no more than 5 x 30" to get good results. On close examination you can see what appears to be the "dew" effect on a lot of the fainter stars.
Ryan: If your filterwheel isn’t sealed it might be an option?
I actually considered whether or not the filters fogging up could be the issue reason being that I grabbed my binoculars for a look into the sky only to see the eyepieces fog up on me. Will need to look at filter wheel and hopefully seal it up properly if that is the issue?
Alex: Thank you for your encouraging words... amazing.
Anth: I saw CFN forecast that evening- seeing was a drabby 6/10 and jet stream not favourable.
And never throw in the towel- You will soon get back on track soon enough.
It’s a testing hobby for sure.
I may need to refer to their website if I continue to come across similar problems in future. It may help with elimination of possible issues.
I don't normally throw in the towel all that easily unless I've exhausted all possibilities and still no improvement. There's a wealth of possibilities mentioned in this post that need further investigation
Cheers
Rocky