second night with clear skies. the first was a full on success, so i thought i add some more lights to m83 and shoot some awesome nebula until it rises. set up took me less then an hour. pol alignment was really good 6 min with only minor trailing. how i know this? well forgot to switch on the guider in the first place. easy fix and out came the first 8.5min sub of the running chicken. fixed up the framing twice but was quite impressed with its brightness. i tried the ghost of jupiter again before but though my goto is spot on there just is no blueish planetary the sky wants me to belive, hence the running chook. after the second exposure light but annoying clouds rolled in. they broke up close to carina so i kept shooting, hoping the increase in skyglow wouldnt ruin my exposures. guiding remained unaffected, well at least according to phd. then the download of the 3rd exposure came in and guess what? trails, big time. i thought: ok, you are probably guiding on a hot pixel. so i took a dark, right after restart and recallibration of phd, set the exposure time to 0,01s and gave it another 8.5min. tata! nice and round stars. the next sub: trails again. this time i blamed it on the clouds. thinking: railayh scattering, i am guiding on turbulences. so down with sensitivity. but whilst i was staring in my pro-observatory style cardboard box that houses my laptop on the campingtable the clouds had formed a nice and solid layer above me. frustrated and scratching my skin off from the bites of mozzy spray resistent new zealand hardcore insects i gave up, asked dss to stack me at least the 3 good raws i got-just to be presented with a clear white image- and packed up. guess what i discovered when i took the guider off? one of the 2 screws holding the extension tube was loose by exactly one twist. so much about my problem solving skills.
now the clouds have disappeared after everything is stored away and of course is the cheese and the wine empty by now. but inspite all the obstacles i still tthink: what a good night, i should get the dob out right now.
