TheSkySearchers

Hi all
First clear night here in sunny Manchester since I bought a cmos camera so I was really excited,
I aligned my scope and thought I’d give the m42 nebula a try
I’m still a beginner and to tell the truth this was the first time I’ve actually viewed it so I was particularly
pleased with myself
Anyway I fired up my laptop attached my brand new bresser full had deep sky camera and......nothing
No matter what I tried I couldn’t get the camera to work, gutted
After hours of shouting and swearing at it I decided to try it on a different laptop that my wife uses and
sure enough it worked great but by this time it had clouded over so I’ve ended up with nothing
Except I’ve seen the m42 nebula by myself and that alone was worth it
Hopefully I’ll have better luck next time

Welcome to Astrophotography!

If you don't know how to swear and curse at the beginning, you become an old pro soon enough.

But, one thing to always keep in mind, whether a good night or a bad one, you always come away having learned something, and every minute logged is a notch of experience on the belt.

It does get better, you just gotta whack the gremlins as they appear and be mindful of repeat appearances by the same gremlins.

And congrats on observing M42!

Damn computers , how can something that fails so often become so popular ! Its all part of the fun. It might be a good idea to get it all working in the daytime when you aren't keyed up and running out of time. Best of luck on the next outing . Good luck Phill

Well, welcome to the curse of Microsoft. Every once in a while my imaging computer likes to throw a fit too, last time out it decided the my guide camera would work better on a USB2 port, trouble was it WAS on a USB2 port.

Just throw up your hands and bow towards Bill G. and calmly re-boot!

Kodak always worked,
Steve

Happens to the best of us. Part of the 'fun' they tell me Anyway, don't give up just keep moving forward. Waiting to see your results.

Hi Mack,

They are right. Astrophotography will try your patience for sure. The rewards are well worth the frustration though.

Phill is right. I have set up my equipment many times for imaging, but I still power everything up to check to make sure all is well before waiting for it to get dark. You will run into new problems on a regular basis and the same gremlins will return often as Bryan said. If it wasn’t a challenge, it wouldn’t be as much fun!

Looking forward to seeing your image and reading your observation reports!

Mack41 wrote: ↑Sun Jan 26, 2020 10:35 pm ...
After hours of shouting and swearing at it I decided to try it on a different laptop that my wife uses and
...

I laughed as I read this. I've been doing astrophotography for ... well a few years now. Anyway, there's this REALLY LONG list of all the things that can (and do) go wrong. It's a learning curve. But it's kinda like playing golf... swearing is part of the game.

Each fall the astronomy clubs in my area all combine resources to put on one REALLY big public outreach event (which typically draws around 5000 people per year).

Each year we have a "scavenger hunt" for the kids. They collect a sheet with what they need to find, and go from scope to scope to see if they can find that object in a telescope (it could be the moon, a planet, a galaxy, a cluster, etc. etc.)

Anyway... last year they expanded the content and added the category of "find an astronomer doing astrophotography" (and I'm doing astrophotography). But a parent comes up to someone at a nearby scope and I can overhear the question / answer as they ask that person "The sheet says I have to find an astronomer doing astrophotography. How will I know if they are doing astrophotography?' ... and the answer was just the BEST ... "Just look for guys who are swearing. That'll be them."

Not only do you swear out at the telescope, but you also swear during the post-processing when you see all the other mistakes you made! It really is a swear-fest!

Cussedly,
JT