Weather whinge

[Gavin1234]

So three separate apps today told me there would be less then 10% cloud cover tonight. So I’m all setup and waiting but as you can see from my laptop screen it is not looking promising.

[RyanJones]

I hear you Gavin. All I can say is persevere because you'll kick yourself the moment you've packed up and it becomes clear. My last dark site visit was supposed to be clear and the cloud started rolling in from the moment I got there. I set up anyway and within half an hour, it was clear.

Nice setup by the way Gavin :thumbsup:

[xelasnave]

It looked good earlier such I was expecting to do battle but when I went out later it was a no go.
Lucky I didnt open up etc .
Alex

[multiweb]

I'm out as well in Sydney. Should clear after midnight. I had a quick run before total darkness and the clouds came in as predicted.

[Startrek]

I’m down the coast near Ulladulla and all day it’s been picture perfect blue sky but at 5.30pm the clouds started rolling in from the west / south west and it’s still heavy cloud cover now.
Had an unbelievable night last Sunday night / early hours of Monday morning and managed to capture my first M42 , conditions were A1
Don’t know if I will wait up until midnight to check outside again, my rigs all set up with a cloak over it.

[multiweb]

I'm in a sucker hole right now shooting what I can. :lol:

[Gavin1234]

Haha me too Marc I got just enough time to get my alignment done before it rolled in. Just cleared up again so I hit start sequence and got this annoying error in my guiding which chewed up some time but I’m rolling now. Hope it stays clear long enough for plenty of subs.

There’s been so few clear nights lately that I’m desperate I’ll take even an hour if I can get it.

Nice setup and m42 Martin. What capture software is that?

[Startrek]

Hi Gavin
I’m using EQMOD , Stellarium scope and Stellarium for goto and acquisition and Backyard EOS ( classic edition ) for frame focus and capture .Its a joy to use if your a DSLR user like I am

[ChrisV]

I didn't even finish polar aligning before the clouds. Left everything running till midnight just in case. Saturday supposedly looks possible?

Nice set up there Gavin!

[multiweb]

Saturday is still looking alright.

[xelasnave]

I stayed up but ot never looked good when I looked and I have to wait till 3 am for Orion it seems...
And its been so long, with my poor memory that I cant remember stuff...just wait till you are old and you know what I mean.
Maybe tonight???
Alex

[Startrek]

Alex
Your memory must be good as you have helped me immensely with your posts and replies all year to get me set up and taking images, thank you !!
I’m really getting into Startools now and it seems to get easier the more you delve into it ( even with poor data you get a reasonable result )
Tonight down the coast looks ok after 10.00 pm and Saturday nights looking good, might be lucky and get +4hours ( might give M42 another shot with some short and long exposures )
Cheers

[Gavin1234]

I only got 11 x 5 min subs in last night. Saturday night is supposed to be good from sunset through till 6am. Fingers crossed.

[Startrek]

Weather report( south coast ) has changed since 3pm now its mostly clear instead of clear
The sky is 80% cloud cover at present with a light nor’easter
I’m going out at 8.30pm to image but it’s not looking great at the moment
I’ve got the 6” set up for imaging in the backyard and the 12” goto dob set up in the front drive just in case imaging becomes to frustrating to bother with.
The weather in Sydney is looking a lot better than down here at the moment, at least that’s what the report says

[multiweb]

Where about in south coast are you? Satellite shows a little cloud but it's dissipating, you might be alright.

[Startrek]

I’m at Narrawallee 5km north of Ulladulla and the cloud has just moved in from the west
Got 2 sync stars done around the Helix ready to centre and image and come to a grinding halt
Trying to find something in between the cloud patches, I’ll persevere for another hour or so , then if it doesn’t clear I’ll shut down and watch some telly

[ChrisV]

Sky is clear in northern Sydney suburbs. Camera cooling.

[Gavin1234]

Finally some clear sky. Worth the wait too, conditions are great here. Just finished on ngc253 and now on m42 till sunrise.

[multiweb]

Same here. Nice and clear since sunset. On the tarantula now.

[xelasnave]

Trying Orion.
15 second luminance cause of a multitude of problems including filter wheel not showing in Sharpcap, auto guide not working.
And I think coma corrector slightly out of place and focuser slaps like a door in the wind.
Still some captures show the trap resolved so I will build on that...only going to get about another five minutes before it goes behind the trees.
Still great to at least have a go☺
Cloud moved in for a while when I finally got it together but I hung in there and it passed.
Alex

[Startrek]

Clouds finally cleared at around 11.30pm just in time to start imaging M42
Guiding was poor couldn’t tighten it up but got away with some 2 minute subs
Finished around 3.30am
Glad I checked outside again and didn’t go to bed

[Paulyman]

Finally a clear night! Still can't get PHD2 to work, I have no idea what I'm doing and nothing seems to make it want to work. But rather than waste the first clear night in ages I went unguided. Managed 2 hours of 60s subs on M45 which skims my neighbours roof and 2 hours on M42. Had to dump half the M45 subs because of interference from the roof and the neighbours lights. I hadn't realised just how noisy a DSLR would be in this weather, the images have crazy hatched banding if I try and stretch, so I had to be very delicate. Not sure I succeeded but I'm happy as a first attempt. Hoping to get the same again tonight, so I'll be tired at work.

[Startrek]

Paul
Im a newbie to guiding and had trouble getting PHD2 guiding working for weeks but now its ok and I’m guiding most times under 1.50 arc sec error depending on seeing conditions etc..occasionally I lose the guide star ( still trying to sort that out )
Are you Ascom guiding direct to the mount or ST4 guiding via the camera to the mount ?
There’s a lot of help out there as well and IIS is a good start to air your issues and get some help
PHD2 have a forum as well to get help but I found websites, IIS , cloudy nights , astronomy books, chatting to my supplier to be most helpful
Good luck and by the way great images keep it up !!

[Wavytone]

Heck... last night I tasted the dark side after 30 years - attached camera body to the MK91 for the first time and I had judged the extension rings correctly - it did achieve focus.

Didn't take a shot though. Another time.

[xelasnave]

I put a cable on the old eq6 mount and did have control via ascom but in an effort to solve a problem that I cant even remember I found a spot and changed the port to four not three..now I can not find where to change it back☺.
PHD was saying its having problems with stars and even if I could fix a star it just would not guide like it just wasnt getting the message.
If stars are the problem I may try this 70 mm guude scope scope but you would think that would not be the problem.
The filter wheel has appeared so hopefully other thing will work out to get on board.
Cant take flat just been making mistake after mistake captured avi files☺ tired and doing stupid mistakes... even though I thought otherwise..anyways the lights and darks have produced an initial pleasing result.
Funny the core which is why I was content with 15 second captures was blown out in the first run..and most photes has the trap well defined so the data is there somewhere.
Alex

[Paulyman]

I’m using Ascom. I get the sense it is probably a few different problems all intermingling. After doing some reading I think I may have overlooked how important a good star is for calibration and where those good stars should be chosen in the sky. So that’s step 1 I suppose, get a good calibration and then just let guiding assistant run and see what the logs say.

[multiweb]

Very tidy shots! :thumbsup:

[Paulyman]

Thanks Marc.