You live and learn

[Zuts]

Hi Guys,

Was out trying to get the Lagoon nebula. My tracking was jumping around all over the place. Six to 10 pixel errors and i couldnt work out why. I had spent over an hour polar aligning and 40 minutes focussing. Anyway I took 3 by 5 minute subs and eventually looked at my scope and the lens was absolutely dripping with dew. My usual park location was competely lit up by the lights of Harold Park racetrack, racing night, so off to bicentennial park for this shot, a nice concrete slab only 10 meters from our lovely harbour (maybe thats why there was so much dew, but a good view of the city and the Anzac Bridge), complete with packs of passing drunk teenagers at 2am in the morning . Went to get my dew strap but left it at home. So, typical, three hours wasted. Packed up and went home.

I will catch it next time.

Paul

[iceman (Mike)]

I'm amazed that you can get any images from the middle of the city!

Keep at it, Paul! btw is was raining last night? How did you even take this image?

[spearo (Frank)]

There are nights like these...
not a bad shot at the end of it all though!
a little bit of distortion of stars in the two top corners due to focal reducer?
I think you should be able to remove some of the background gradient and get a better contrast because the the centre looks prettty sharp just a bit washed out a tad maybe?

I often us a gaussian blur of a copy of the image in PS and remove that from the image before setting the black point
might be worth a try

cheers
frank

[Ric]

It's a very tidy image Paul.

Considering you location in the middle of the city nakes this quite s remarkable image.

Cheers

[renormalised (Carl)]

Nice shot, considering what you had to put up with!!.

[Zuts]

Originally Posted by iceman

I'm amazed that you can get any images from the middle of the city!

Keep at it, Paul! btw is was raining last night? How did you even take this image?

This image was taken the previous Friday i think. Normally I wouldnt post it because of lack of subs and dew but given the current weather I am bored out of my tree astro-wise and just wanted to post something

Originally Posted by spearo

There are nights like these...
not a bad shot at the end of it all though!
a little bit of distortion of stars in the two top corners due to focal reducer?
I think you should be able to remove some of the background gradient and get a better contrast because the the centre looks prettty sharp just a bit washed out a tad maybe?

I often us a gaussian blur of a copy of the image in PS and remove that from the image before setting the black point
might be worth a try

cheers
frank

Thanks Frank,

Usually the TV reducer/flattener works well. On this night any guide star i chose was just a jumping squirming mess and I couldnt work out why. When I checked the lens it was competely beaded up with dew so maybe that was the problem, the layer of dew unflattened the flattener?

Originally Posted by Ric

It's a very tidy image Paul.

Considering you location in the middle of the city nakes this quite s remarkable image.

Cheers

Thanks Ric,

I am thinking of going narrowband Ha plus RGB, if that works then LP in the city will be a thing of the past

Originally Posted by renormalised

Nice shot, considering what you had to put up with!!.

Thanks Norm,

Normally I sneak my car onto the park and park next to a concrete practice pitch. I am close to the car and have good visibility of drunks coming in all directions. The location that night is popular with drunken school kids and i had to leave the car in the carpark. The drunks really worry me as I am scared they may take a fancy to all my gear....


Paul

[leon]

Your a brave man Paul, I wouldn't be out among that lot even if you paid me, nice image by the way.

Leon

[dcalleja]

I had a night like this the other week. Could not for the life of me get my gotos to work and ended up doing spiral searches all night to find my targets. I had of course forgotten about the end of daylight savings!!

Just goes to show you dont need a dark sky site for everything. Great image.

[winensky]

They say its good for the soul. A fine image despite the adversity.

[Zuts]

Originally Posted by winensky

They say its good for the soul. A fine image despite the adversity.

Thanks Matt,

I envy your dark skies, havnt seen you post for a while

Originally Posted by dcalleja

I had a night like this the other week. Could not for the life of me get my gotos to work and ended up doing spiral searches all night to find my targets. I had of course forgotten about the end of daylight savings!!

Just goes to show you dont need a dark sky site for everything. Great image.

Thanks Dan,

Yes, sometimes everything goes bad but sometimes it all comes together and its great. This weekend looks like being fine, I cant wait to get out and do a proper job on the lagoon.

Originally Posted by leon

Your a brave man Paul, I wouldn't be out among that lot even if you paid me, nice image by the way.

Leon

Thanks Leon,

Drunken teenagers aren't too bad, some of them are actually interested. The police usually 'investigate' me once every few weeks, they are amazed that I am out in such a place and tell me to be carefull. I have the Glebe police well trained, but being inner city you get other patrols as well, and I have to explain myself again .


Paul