Not the best!

[catman161]

Man what a miserable attempt at a session last night!

Having got my mount back from Graham who had regreased and fitted the belt drive conversion and sorted a couple of other problems he encountered in the process ( thanks again graham ) I was very excited to try that and also first light my new ASI120MC with a view to getting Jupiter on the chip. I had also recently cleaned my primary so was eager to see what results I could get.

So, I saw the "forecast" for the evening was "clear from 6pm-3am" so got the mount and tripod out, polar aligned under a lovely clear sky and then did a two star alignment and it was almost spot on both times. The mount was super smooth and running like a dream with no horrible crunching noise as it started up! The belt drive conversion was definitely worth it!

So with the scope needing to acclimatise and a few jobs needing doing before Jupiter was viewable above the roof of a neighbour at about half 9 I went inside leaving the scope pointing at Polaris (mistake!) So I am inside pottering about getting stuff sorted and my lovely wife returns home and asks what I have been doing whilst she was out so I go into great detail about setting my scope up and leaving it to cool and how I was eager to test the new camera and flip mirror and she nods and smiles. We then sit down in the lounge and carry on talking and then there's a lull in conversation and I hear a sound that fills me with dread! POUNDING RAIN ON THE WINDOWS!!!! Agghhhh!!!

I run outside hastily shove the dust cap on the end of the 200P and quickly get everything into the garage. I run inside and my wife says what's the matter? And I explain what has happened and she replies "oh yeah it was raining when I came in earlier" This made me see red and I just said (In a calm, controlling my anger tone of voice) "where's your hair dryer please?" I then proceeded to dry my drenched primary mirror and wiped down the mount and all the other equipment. On inspection there were a lot of water marks on the primary but during the time it took me to sort everything the skies had become brilliantly clear!

So I set up again! I left the scope to cool but this time sat in the conservatory! Once the scope had had time to cool (after being blasted with a hair dryer!) it was now about 9:30pm and Jupiter was coming into view. I slewed to Jupiter and it looked good but it seemed very "moist" the atmosphere last night with a lot of high hazy stuff but I thought there's no way I am not getting an image now. How wrong I was lol! The mount functioned brilliantly tracking Jupiter awesomely and the sound improvement is greatly appreciated too. In fact the success of the night was the "new" (sort of) mount

I attached the flip mirror and new camera and fired up sharpcap. I got a blank screen! I thought ahh I have not flipped the flip mirror, however I had. I checked the cables,the camera and that it was actually being picked up by sharpcap.I tried it on firecapture with the same results I messed about updating drivers and restarting the laptop for two hours and then gave up and packed away as cloud had rolled in anyway by this time 

 I came on to the new chat room to see Kim, Steve (ibbo) and Mike (perkil8er) in there-I told them of my frustrating night and being great guys they started to see if they could help and we went through, software version, driver version, did the camera even show light or dark when pointed at laptop screen etc. Then Mike said "have you tried a different USB port?" Laughing to myself I said "yep tried that many times" and then just as an indulgence I tried it right there and then in the lounge with the little CCTV fisheye lens that comes with the camera on and immediately I got a crystal clear picture!!!! Frustrating to the max but at least a good outcome.

There are three things I learnt last night:

1. Don't setup and stray too far from your scope trusting that the weather forecast is correct

 2. Always mess about with new gadgets inside before trying them for the first time outside in the dark!

3. EMS members are always there to help-thanks guys

My primary is currently air drying after another wash (2nd in two weeks!) with distilled water. It will be going back on when dry and being collimated (thanks for the primary colli bolts too Graham) in readiness for Belper tonight. I feel I deserve to get at least one good avi of Jupiter at Belper tonight!

Edited November 22, 2013 by catman161

[oldfruit]

 What a faff! I feel your pain. I think we have all had that happen Felix. Better luck for next time.

If there is even a chance of rain when i have set up outside, i often set up our garden parasol and place it over my setup just in case.

[catman161]

Thats a good tip Mark I shall do that in future. That's what annoys me though whe I went in it was beautifully clear and the rain lasted no longer than 10 minutes all in. Thats still enough time of course to fill your OTA!

 

Live and learn as they say

[Doc]

I wonder if this is the most faffable (if this is a word) hobby in the world.

 

Love your writing style Felix, what a great read.

[T A WOW]

Lol. Sounds like a eventfull night.

If you've forgotten what Jupiter looks like, I'll show you tonight. No fancy computer nonsense to go wrong on my set up

Nice write up too.

Edited November 22, 2013 by T A WOW

[Daz Type-R]

Cracking read Felix, loved reading that despite all your issues, the sound of rain would have had me screaming as well!

 

Hope you can make Belper tonight, not seen you in ages so will be good to catch up, at least there were some positives to last night...

 

1. You wont be doing it again.

2. You got all your imaging issues sorted (for now).

 

I look forward to the pics.

[+RonC]

Good read Felix, had a night like that earlier in the week (see thread!) so I know how it feels!! Glad your sorted and look forward to some good pics of Jupiter!! 

[catman161]

Thanks guys, glad you enjoyed reading it You gotta laugh at these things when you've sorted it all out or you might end up jacking it all in and taking up another hobby! Lol!

See those tonight at Belper that are going

[Guest Tweedledum]

Great read Felix, that will save you cleaning the primary for the next few years!

 

Have had cameras in monsoons (literally) without failing, most low voltage stuff fairly resiliant to low levels of H2O, so long as there is no ionisation going on to create a proper circuit (tea with sugar in it kills!).

[catman161]

 (tea with sugar in it kills!).

ROFLMAO! I love science humour

[+Bino-viewer]

Great post Felix ! I'm sure you'll come up trumps with it soon......

[+Graham]

Brilliant stuff Felix.

These things are sent to try us and don't they just

Pleased its all working as it should.

[Teslar]

Frustrating init but glad the mount mods work as expected. I had a night like that at SDSO. No eqmod no camera I tried all the cables and connections wracked my brains trying to think of what it was then vaguely remembered running a registry cleaner after installing something that turned out nasty. I ended up reinstalling everything from scratch until I got it working. So too true always test your kit long before longhand especially if your a tinkerer like me