It is Pretty Obvious Now

[leon]

Hi Guys

I did always suspect this, but now it is official.

Of late my images have been Ok, but the sky fogging and noise, because of longer exposures because i am now auto guiding is taking it's toll on the results.

I have imaged of late to the East, and directly over head, and also toward the West, and upon studying the results have shown that imaging toward the East is just a waste of good time, and from now will just wait until the object is either directly above, or better still, slightly toward the West.

I realise that this is only related to my location, as toward the East i tend to image across the glow of Ballarat, which is pretty bright.

So I have concluded that unless the object is directly above or more West ward i will not be imaging that perticular object until such time it has crossed the sky to a more suitable location.

Upon re reading this i have noticed that i have repeated myself a number of times, Ah well, you get the idea.:whistle:

I thought i might just share that with you, maybe i should move to Snake Valley :lol:

Leon :thumbsup:

[dugnsuz]

:PThis truly is a sad day for eastern DSOs!;)
I wouldn't have thought you were having any light pollution problems judging by the images in your gallery leon.
Cheers
Doug:thumbsup:

[leon]

Yea Doug I am, and i expect others are as well, when i was at your place it was darker than being here, by heaps.

Leon

[dugnsuz]

Opposite for me leon, East is darkest area, town lights to the West.
Doug

[Starkler]

Spare a thought for those of us affected by town lights from every direction :(

[Aster]

The same applies here. 20 years ago it was that dark that many a night, or early hours of the morning, after a night of observing I walked straight into the back of the house. Didn't had a drink either. ;)

Now, the west and north are useless, east soso, southeast, south and zenith are ok.

Lots of units are being built around here and the council has no idea how to install street lights which throw the light down onto the street, like the name implies, instead of up.

[leon]

Ah, so I'm not alone in the quest to shoot the lights out, I remember too when in the early years it was so dark it was scary :scared:

Leon :thumbsup:

[Benny L]

not for me :P perth buggers up everything in the west for me :(

[vash]

the east and north are write off's for me as thats where the Gold Cost is. Mind you out here I can see the Magellanic clouds and the milky way very easily, Some night better than other though.

The advantage is that because of the eastern sky I avoid aiming the scope that way, when I'm imaging I wait for it to be over head so It save doing a flip.

[Terry B]

I have trees to the east so the west is the way to go (apart from SE).
I also note that my guiding is better when I aim west. I assume it is a balance thing with the mount.

[leon]

Strange you mention that Terry, it also seems that my tracking is better when i image to the West. weird that as the balance of the set-up seems fine.

Leon

[dugnsuz]

I'm glad you've brought this up, thought it was just particular to me!
I find that my eastern M42 images are spot-on for over 5mins
Whereas my recent Tarantula post was very soft due to the variation in the tracking throughout the imaging session!
Doug:thumbsup:

[leon]

Yes Doug it is definitly a factor, if my counter weights are in the westen direction, and the scope is also imaging west, or overhead slightly to the west things are better.

leon

[Aster]

Most likely your scope/scopes are not balanced around their circumference.

Therefore on one side of the pier you are driving against some imbalance on the other with.

Find out which side is slower/faster in RA and make the adjustments to your electronics (potensiometer) spelling??

Just a thought.

[spearo]

«Hello,
i agree i think its a balance issue. I had a similar issue myself
i think the key is to ensure you`re slightly , slightly, off-balance on the rising side, so if imaging west with counterweights in west then the scope would be rising and should thus be slightly heavier so the worm mechanism etc all sits right
i think
worked for me with the CG5 (though nothing can really help now except my order for a G11...)
cheers
frank:hi:

[Aster]

Have always set my scopes up that way. It also cuts out backlash in worm/gear especially if you have good alignment to the SP.