{"id":6543,"date":"2021-12-09T10:16:45","date_gmt":"2021-12-09T10:16:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/?p=6543"},"modified":"2021-12-09T10:24:20","modified_gmt":"2021-12-09T10:24:20","slug":"crazy-hobby-20211209","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/crazy-hobby-20211209\/","title":{"rendered":"Why do we do this crazy hobby?"},"content":{"rendered":"

With a fairly bright comet C\/2021 A1 (Leonard) developing very nicely in the eastern morning sky, we will have limited time before if dives below the horizon.
\nAs a result, the usual clouds have interrupted proceedings, making it difficult, if not impossible to image.<\/p>\n

But I’ve been doing astronomy for so long now, so I no longer think there is a personal attack on my enjoyment of astronomy and imaging.
\nI absolutely KNOW there is!<\/p>\n

This morning was a typical case.
\nI looked out of the window at 4:00am. It was mostly clear.
\nBig clear patches with some cloud around, so looked very promising.<\/p>\n

I got up and set up the scope.
\nBy the time it was all up and running, the large gaps had got a lot smaller.
\n10 minutes later it was completely overcast, then started to rain. TYPICAL!
\nI covered everything over, and hung on in there.<\/p>\n

It stopped raining, then some passing larger clear patches allowed me to get the camera focused and latch onto the comet, which by 5am, had just cleared the neighbours roof.<\/p>\n

With clouds still drifting by, I captured a few claggy images.
\nThese showed that the comet was moving rapidly against the background stars.<\/p>\n

I could only do up to a 10 second exposure before it started looking visibly trailed.<\/p>\n

About an hour before the sky was to start brightening in the east, the skies cleared from the west, eventually unveiling the comet properly.
\nIt was easily visible in 10x50binoculars.<\/p>\n

So the imaging game was now full on.<\/p>\n

As well as my main rig, I also set up the Stellamira 90mm triplet on my old Astrotrac and took some other images using my Nikon D5100 camera.<\/p>\n

With both rigs capturing images, I left them running and made a cuppa.<\/p>\n

Once the sky got too bright to image any more, I took my dark frames and packed away.
\nNow to see what I had actually captured after I processed the images.
\nI have posted the resulting images below.<\/p>\n

Yes, this hobby and the weather \/ Bright Moon \/ Light pollution \/ Lack of sleep etc. can be extremely frustrating at times.<\/p>\n

But, with a little bot of perseverance and patience, when it all comes together I hope that you can see why we do this crazy hobby.
\nWhat a buzz!<\/p>\n

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Comet Leonard is really shifting this morning. If I get another go at this before it disappears, I'm going to have to try and track the comet to get longer exposures to bring out more detail. pic.twitter.com\/RsAl0zmQxn<\/a><\/p>\n

— Dave Eagle FRAS ? Mister Night Sky! (@Dave_StarGeezer) December 9, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n