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Just Curious, how many times do people image per month roughly? I’ve been doing this hobby since March last year and try and get out any clear night possible, I have 12 fully processed images so far, I usually go for 10 hours worth of data before Stacking etc. I live in the UK West Midlands bortle 5/6 it seems I only get 2/3 imaging sessions a month if I’m lucky sometimes go a month without getting my gear out, weather is terrible. Do people Image a couple hours a night when there’s a break in the clouds? As I only go out when I know it’s a clear night and Zero chance of rain. As it takes about 40mins to set up? Thanks Chris |
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This year has been pretty bad by UK (East Midlands) historical records and I'm lucky to get few hours this whole month (there is essentially ZERO chance to have a full night and never mind the Full Moon in a fornight). The same could be said, I suspect, for much of Western Europe. In part must be my fault as I bought 2 cameras... Used to be better than this in the east of the UK, |
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| It’s been bad for the last 2 years lol. I’m lucky to get 1 a month. I look at 3 weather apps, and two astro apps for forecasts. When a potential clear period is showing, i’ll set up my gear in anticipation. I’ve had 5 occasions in the last two months where it was supposed to be clear, showing clear on the apps, but it was full on overcast all night. |
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hi this year has been bad in miami FL ,USA , bad weather every week |
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Personally, I prefer to go through the trouble of setting up an imaging session only when I know I'll be able to have a full nights worth of clear skies. I live in the midwestern US in Kansas, December through April are usually the months I struggle with getting at least 1 clear night a month. During the rest of the year I probably average around 3-4 imaging sessions per month. Bortle 8 zone. I'm not a traveler however and am lazy and stick to my backyard where my setup is permanent. Hopefully mother nature gives you a break. Fabian |
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I image on clear and partially clear nights, if I can. The prevalence of "fully clear" nights is pretty low. It ebbs and flows, but, when you hear about places having "200 sunny days a year" that number is rarely referring todays that are totally clear. Cloudcover is far more common than no cloudcover in most places. So, when you say you image on every clear night possible, do you mean only totally clear nights, not a cloud in sight? Or do you include nights that might have some clouds? What I've learned over the years, is if you really want to get more data, deeper signals, better SNR...then you have to take advantage of those not-so-clear nights as well. Maybe its just high, thin clouds. Hey, that can work, especially with narrow band, if the clouds are thin enough. Pocket-hole nights, where you get some clouds then some clear, then some clouds, etc. can work as well. And for broadband as well as narrow. The thing you have to accept is that, sometimes such nights work out ok, and other times they don't work out at all. You have to accept that you'll probably throw away a lot of junk subs (i.e. full clouds, enough clouds that they obscure your target too much, star-trailed subs that may have occurred before guiding could be fully restored, etc. etc. You'll definitely have throw-away subs. And you NEED to throw them away or degrade your stack. You will also need to accept the fact that sometimes you'll get hit with cloudcover that lasts long enough that recovery after they pass is impossible, and your session fails and you either get only limited data, or none at all. What you should also find though, is that while you throw out more subs than if you only imaged on totally clear nights...you should also have MORE keepers, too!! If you don't take advantage of those partially clear nights, then you are only ever going to have the keeper rate you have now, give or take a small amount as the number of fully clear nights ebbs and flows. If you DO take advantage of them, then the potential is there that you'll take home more useful data that will improve your SNR, IQ, etc. At worst, you gain nothing and lose a bit of additional effort. At best, you gain a ton of additional data. ;) My last few images from 2019, last time I really did much imaging, were all spanning 2-3 months, with plenty of partially clear or not ideal nights (probably the majority were). Some nights, I may only get 1-5 subs in total (I usually do 10 minute nb subs, but with RGB I may get 10-15 subs at a few minutes each.) Other nights, I may get another 10-20 subs or more. That is additional data I simply wouldn't have at all, if I hadn't tried on a less than perfect night. |
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| @Jon Rista Sorry yes, I mean partly clear nights not totally clear. I do have a lot of subs I discard but the majority are keepers. I did last year have 2 nights in a row that were perfectly clear I couldn’t believe it. I don’t think there’s anything better than looking on clear skies app and seeing clear-ish nights… I was just checking out your profile, pretty impressive portfolio you have there, Awesome images. Thanks Chris |
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| @Fabian Butkovich Yes I’m the same as you I usually check the multiple weather apps I have and see if it’s worth setting up. I also have only imaged from my back yard. But in a few months going to a bortle 3 Zone on holiday and will be taking my gear with me, I really do hope it’s going to be clear at least one day, but not holding my breath hahah. Cheers Fabian |
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The last year has been fairly bad for clouds in most places. I have Astro friends located in many places across the US and the general consensus has been that imaging nights were few and far between. Here in the Pacific Northwest, it's been absolutely horrible. In New Mexico I've had better luck, but even there I've had a higher than expected rate of frames affected by clouds. Rain hasn't really been a factor, but windy nights have been more common as of late. |
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| It's been so bad this winter that I'm considering to give up the hobby... |
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It used to be every clear night. Now it depends. Like tonight it's supposed to be clear about half the night, the moons out, and it's kinda windy. I'm still debating if I want to carry my stuff out. If it was summer I'd take my wide field rig out no question. Tonight though, I'd have to take my C8 out, and that's more weight and affected by the wind more. With my widefield rig, it's still pretty much any clear night. I can carry it all out in one piece, and it takes me about 5 minutes to get it polar aligned and starting to image. I'm thinking I'm going to anyway because I just got a new reducer for it, so if nothing else I can play around with that and make sure everythings good. |
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| Clear around half the night and wind has felt like my mode of operation for the last few weeks. 🤣 |
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| ... and I thought I was alone .... |
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| Anytime it's clear with zero chance of precipitation. That could be as low as zero hours a month in the winter and as high as 150+ hours in the late summer. Having the observatory makes it easy to roll the roof open or close at a literal moments notice. I usually have all the sequences ready to go from the last session so I just click go. |
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As I age I found I was setting up only on nights with forecasts predicting clear skies for the entire night. I often sleep while the scopes are eating photons. I did not want a surprise of a weather mishap. I built an observatory. This was a game changer. If weather is predicted early with clearing after midnight. I will go to bed early and set an alarm. From decision to image to an autofocus run in 10min opens up the multi-hour clear window for me to image. I do this more than I get a chance to image the entire evening. Tonight is one of those nights. I have clouds forecasted after midnight. I have a scope working now... Last winter I went 67 days with solid night clouds cover. This year was 43 consecutive days with clouds. In March 2024 I have had 5 clear nights and 4 partial nights of clear skies. Clear Skies, TIm |
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| As a lot of other people have said, it has been really cloudy this year and in 2023 in most of Europe, and no different here in Norway. Last year and so far this year I've gotten around 2-3 clear nights per month and I'm always unlucky enough to get those nights when there's a full moon out. Soon we're not going to get any darkness for a couple of months (midnight sun), but I'm hoping for better weather when the darkness returns in September. |
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Chris Addison: Hi Chris! 1st) if you have to work daily of course you can't go out as it clears around midnight and do imaging until 4am when you have to get up at 6am for work 2nd) therefore many people here just download files - they never sit beside a telescope, they are just buying files and present those results here as their own achievement. In the past three years the percentage of people doing so exploded here. So, there you have your answer... |
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Michael von Berner-Purgstall: Actually, I do (but not often). Although in all honesty it'll be likely 7.30am |
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Actually I clock in a 7am and rise around 4am. Getting up to open up and start an imaging session at midnight (usually a .5hr while I let the dog out) then back to bed... the observatory makes that happen for me. In the past, I only imaged when an entire night presented itself... CS |
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Michael von Berner-Purgstall: Michael, I quickly gave up waiting for clear nights during the weekends - it just doesn't happen. So I go out for astrophotography whenever the weather and moon permits, (almost) no matter what's up at work the next day. I use a mobile setup and try to get a few hours of sleep on a camp bed next to my gear - this helps a lot the next day. However, this is more convenient of course during the warmer seasons than during winter. During winter, clear nights have been scarce and imaging opportunities during this year's winter season here in Central Europe were as follows: 2 nights in November 2 nights in December No nights in January 1 night in February (which I missed) 2 nights in March (where I missed 1) In average troughout the year we can say 2-3 clear nights per month in Central Europe. Let's hope for the best! Chris |
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The weather in DK has been horrible this winter for astrophotography. There are very few clear nights, and there is often lots of wind, which minimizes my chances even more. To improve my situation, I have made myself a nice little windshed, which works really really well. This means I can now image in windy conditions with my 8" newt, which is super sensitive to wind. A few nights ago, I was imaging in 7 m/s wind, with gusts around 10 m/s. I was guiding at around 0,75" on average. So more nights to image on now. I would prefer to only image on nights with clear skies all night, but I am trying to find solutions to take advantage of more nights, with only partly clear skies....without having to build a full-blown observatory in my backyard  To get more from the available nights, I am also considering building an additional rig to image more targets simultaneously. Refuse to loose attitude  - but I must admit, that I am seriously considering finding an off-site hosting center, with more clear skies, than we have in DK.
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D. Jung: Just been looking through some of your images, you can’t give up some beautiful pictures you’ve took. |
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Chris Addison:D. Jung: Never give up. There's always data to be had! |
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| @Michael von Berner-Purgstall I normally go out when it’s dark say in the summer 11pm set up then set my Alarm for when it goes light around 4am the retrieve my scope then go back to bed then wake up for work around 6:30am. That’s only if it’s forecast a decent night. I didn’t even know you could buy files that’s interesting, I find the fun part is collecting your own data with your own equipment and learning what works best that’s just me though I’ve learnt so much in just a year. Just wish we had more clear nights 😂 |
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| Montreal has been horrific, as well. A ton of absolutely beautiful, clear days... that cloud over by sunset. Maybe had 8-10 solid nights of clear skies this year. |
