Lack of Astrophotography Photos

[Graeme]

For anyone wondering about my lack of astrophotography posts, my telescope mount sat in the garage for 9 months and now it doesn't work properly! I'm in communication with Celestron looking for a way forward but the responses are slow coming back! Basically, it slews ok but it doesn't respond to the gentle nudges required for guiding making imaging impossible. So I decided to clean up the worm drives and regrease them.

The long description of my fettling is here: https://theskysearchers.com/viewtopic.php?t=31557

The short version is that I have cleaned the worm drives, the grease was old and sparse and the belt drives needed adjusting. All that has been done and I've put everything back together again. The weather forecast is rain today and tonight but then a few clear nights in a row. So on Saturday night I will either be ecstatic and I will be imaging or I will be depressed and working out if I can afford a new telescope mount!

Fingers crossed!

Graeme

[HansV]

Hoping for the best!

[RonH]

Is 1858 your birth date

Here's trusting that you achieve good fixes to your astro gear.

[ChrisGreaves]

For anyone wondering about my lack of astrophotography posts,

Well, I didn't like to say anything ... but I am sure that I'm not the only one .

... my telescope mount sat in the garage for 9 months and now it doesn't work properly!

This however has me puzzled. You have been gracing us with splendid and thought-provoking images all along.
I thought that this collection of devices depended on auto-guidance and a slew of slewing and guiding doo-dads.
How did this poor cousin end up being left out in the garage, all on its lonesome, for nine months?

I grew up thinking that fettlers worked on railway lines, and it doesn't help that last night I began re-re-re-reading Bill Bryson's "Made in America" which he kicks off with the fettlers on board The Mayflower.
Cheers, Chris

[Graeme]

Hoping for the best!

Ta

Is 1858 your birth date

Here's trusting that you achieve good fixes to your astro gear.

Aye, it is! Not the most imaginative User Name is it!

And thanks.

... my telescope mount sat in the garage for 9 months and now it doesn't work properly!

This however has me puzzled. You have been gracing us with splendid and thought-provoking images all along.

Not really. The last decent image I posted was the Iris Nebula from last August (and it's still my favourite of all time!) I posted the M101 galaxy image that had the supernova in it but that was a stack of 60 second unguided, telescope mount tracking only, frames. You can just about get away with 60 seconds.

[Graeme]

... my telescope mount sat in the garage for 9 months and now it doesn't work properly!

This however has me puzzled. You have been gracing us with splendid and thought-provoking images all along.

Not really. The last decent image I posted was the Iris Nebula from last August (and it's still my favourite of all time!) I posted the M101 galaxy image that had the supernova in it but that was a stack of 60 second unguided, telescope mount tracking only, frames. You can just about get away with 60 seconds.

I've just been tidying my web site only to discover Chris that you're quite right! After the Iris Nebula there was the M13 Hercules Globular Cluster, M27 the Dumbbell Nebula and C34 the Western Veil Nebula then a 9 month gap before the M101 image!

My memory must be fading!

Graeme

[ChrisGreaves]

My memory must be fading!

Hi Graeme.
I suspect that your memory storage is performing just fine, but the processing always enjoys a nudge now and then.
I was reminded, last month, of a picnic I went on 60 years ago. Once it was mentioned the memories came flooding back into my mind.
I had a similar experience with a road trip from Goodshaw to Burnley back in 1978; the bus journey to school unrolled like a video movie.
Cheers, Chris