What a Weird Night

[Matty P]

Last night, I was awarded with crystal clear skies after a very long week. What better way to unwind on a Friday night than to sit outside under the stars. Although something did not feel right, it was too good to be true. :)

I put the scope to cool a few hours before I planned to start imaging. By the time I set everything up it was now around 10pm. I aligned the scope and everything was coming along nicely. :thumbsup:

Now was the time things started to get really weird... When I tried to start up the capture software for the DMK, an application error came up and the computer refused to start the program. :mad2: I restarted the lappy but the same problem was still there. After a bit of troubleshooting, I reinstalled the capture software and everything was back to normal. This had set my back around 30-45 minutes and by the time now, the Moon had disappeared behind house. :mad2::mad2:

Now that I had missed the chance to image the Moon, I decided to image Mars while waiting for Saturn to rise. After a few AVI's of Mars I pointed the scope to Saturn and everything seemed fine.....

Until.... the capture software decided it wanted to play some tricks on me. I centered Saturn on the chip, focused the scope and pressed the record button. The camera recorded around 2500 frames when it froze. :mad2::mad2::mad2: I couldn’t do much but just stare at the laptop screen in despair.

When the frustration finally set in, I decided to pack up the equipment. As I was in the middle putting everything away. I remember looking up and the whole sky was covered in a thick blanket of cloud. :screwy:

What a weird night! I hope this never happens again. :doh:

[Night Owl]

Its not a Toshiba Satellite A200 is it?
It may have dewed up inside the case?

[xelasnave]

Sounds pretty normal to me....
At least you got to wrestle with beast that is astro imaging.
When those sorts of things happen just remember that only a short time ago in history most folk had no access to a telescope or imaging gear.

alex

[Matty P]

It is not a Satellite but it is a Toshiba. :rolleyes:

Wouldn't the scope be the first one to dew up before the lappy? :shrug:

[Matty P]

I agree Alex but when you have the clearest skies that you have ever seen since you started this hobby and your computer and camera decide to go on a vacation. It is a bit hard to not get FRUSTRATED! :mad2: :bashcomp:

[xelasnave]

Yes but wait till you miss once in a hundred year events that will not reoccur in your life time .... just keep the axe handy:D.

The key is not to get frustrated:) ... I am saying this to you in an effort to remind myself.. I am about to start dismantling the eq6.... as soon as I can find the axe:whistle:.
alex:):):)

[Night Owl]

The scope doesn't have a 120 watt demand for power, a multi gigahertz processor, RAM, a hard drive, motherboard, graphics card, etc. etc.

[Moonboy]

Bad Luck Man, I hope you get the pictures of the Moon that you wanted.
Gus

[Matty P]

Thanks Gus,

I've got some clear skies at the moment and the scope it curently outside cooling.

Hopefully tonight will be different.

[Matty P]

Last night was totally different... in a bad way. :doh:

The Good :)

1. There were no problems with the laptop or camera.
2. The Moon was still high enough to image.

The Bad :mad2:

1. The seeing was horrendous for imaging.
2. There was a lot of strong wind around.
3. The scope dewed up as soon as the cover was removed.

You just can't win. :sad:

[mark3d]

things worth doing are usually challenging :D

[Matty P]

I agree Mark, these kind of challenges is what makes this hobby so interesting IMO. :)