Usually 30 to 60 minutes here..
If all goes well I can be away and imaging in 30min but if I have to hunt for a guidestar and the object if faint and I need some deep testshots to frame the subject then it can be over a hour before the first proper shots are taken.
Hi
I am one of the 1-2hours setup tragics. With the best of intentions something always seems to go wrong to add to the delay. My main whinge
is why does time seem to go twice as fast when you're out star gazing?
Oh yeah - I think I know!
Cheers Peter
I put in 1-2 hours. I haven't imaged with my EQ mount yet, only my alt-az LX200, but even with that I would set up in about 20 minutes but then go inside to wait an hour or so to let the optics cool down.
With my G11 I guess that waiting for the cooldown period will be replaced with the drift aligning process.
I thought through my process and realised I was linking things that didn't need to done that way. You see there is a PC and Camera power-up and software initiation that is really independent of opening up the dome and powering on the telescope.
So nowadays I start the PC and Camera maybe late afternoon and check all is ready and leave the software dormant and have VNC start on boot.
Come evening I simply open the dome, remove dust covers, turn on mount and link from the Sky6. I issue my first slew to target generally from the lab (stars always seem very close to centre so I don't need to re-sync) and I shoot a 2-3 second snap just to check things all connected correctly. My focus seems to remain constant month by month and the goto's from last power on are excellent so I only have to re-synch every few months.
So by splitting tasks this way on a permanent set-up, it can be 2-3 minutes from initialising mount to imaging, slightly more if I'm doing a 10 minute or longer first exposures and want to auto-guide as PHD and MaximDL don't remember their last calibration.
To me that is the joy of a permanent set-up. Putting the hard work into getting imaging base camp established means I spend more time with the family! Now that the power on, PC- link, point and track logistics are sorted its into image processing that I thrust my quest for improvement. I presume with increased skill on the image processing side I will go back to improving focus, collimation, tracking, darks and flats trying to squeeze that last little bit more out of my set-up that I have come to realise is held up more by operator skill than equipment yet!
