Wasted imaging opportunity

[Marko of Oz (Mark)]

This is what happens when my camera(DSLR) isn't seated in the focuser properly. I only checked focus in the middle of the frame and apparently I had blinkers on to what was happening as you move to the edges of the frame. 4 hours of dud data.

I guess that's an extreme example of sensor tilt?

Live n learn.

cheers

Mark

[Mickoid (Michael)]

Don't worry Mark, we've all done something like that at one stage or another. There's a lot to check before shooting and in our enthusiasm to get the job done, we can miss a crucial step in the procedure. The centre doesn't look too bad, just do a tight crop around M20 and no one would ever know!

[Stephane]

Hey Mark, sorry to hear about your experience. I’ve had tons of wasted nights when one thing or another occurs which ruins everything. You live and learn. Keep having fun imaging

[Cyberman (Rob)]

I've done that too. Tilt seems to be one of my most common problems. I seem able to collimate ok with cat's eye. I've got to make sure that the camera in in snug against the edge of the focuser, then tighten screws just to mild contact , then go around again and tighten screws firmly,. During all this I need make sure camera doesn't slip out and crash on the ground. Your nebula was looking good. I agree, could just crop aggressively and process. Good luck , Rob.

[Saturn488]

The amount of times I have done something silly and had many wasted opportunities.

The most embarrassing was losing half hour of imaging time because I couldn't work out why my images were coming out all black. Forgot to take the cap off the scope

[Dave882 (David)]

Aaah yes. Condolences. It’s so painful when you loose valuable clear nights due to unforeseen mishaps. Pretty sure we can all relate. If I had $1 for every time I’ve lost hours of data for some stupid reason, I’d be able to build anew obs.
- Focus slipped and not adjusted for next few hours…check
- Failed to remove bahtinov mask after focusing…check
- Mount doing a random slew 10min into a 4hr autorun program and imaging some random piece of sky…check
- imaged target with wrong filter…check
- whole night of beautiful data but stuffed up flats making it all unusable…check
-data missing from usb drive at end of night…check
-spend ages trying to work out what’s wrong with the image until realising switched main/guide camera and was imaging through the oag…check

The list could go on and on…

[Doogs38 (Alex)]

… yep … the list goes on seemingly ad infinitum Most recently, I lost nearly a whole night on Barnard’s Galaxy as I forgot to switch my camera to the correct bin … doh. All chalked up to experience and lessons learnt.

[oska (John)]

She's a bit wobbly, for me any star time is a good time