Light Pollution, Astronomical Seeing & Remote Astrophotography (Telescope Live)
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- čas přidán 25. 08. 2024
- Discover how light pollution, unpredictable weather, and less-than-ideal astronomical seeing coerced me into breaking a sacred astrophotography vow I made 8 years back. Watch my story of succumbing to the allure of a remote observatory, courtesy of Telescope Live. Get ready for some out-of-this-world RAW data captured by top-notch telescopes nestled in the peaks of Spain and Chile. Clear skies!
Wido.
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Celestron Edge HD 8" telescope (urban picture of M51):
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Hi Wido, great video, many thanks. I keep a log book and record every imaging session I have done since 2014 when I built my observatory. On average for the period start of October to end of March, I have noticed a large drop off in imaging opportunities. In 2014/15 I imaged 13 times in this period and 10 times for 2015/16 (work commitments reduced this). However, in 2020/21 there were only 6 x imaging opportunities for me, and the same in 2023/24 to date. This won't be very scientific, but I had noticed the same issue and it is affecting how I look at the observatory now, I have invested heavily in the last 2 years in a new mount & camera...but the imaging time is not there to justify continued investment. I had looked at remote imaging companies, but they seemed extremely expensive when buying time, I never thought of buying archived data, I might look into that. But it doesn't feel the same though! Clear skies everyone!!
You forget the Canary island La Palma where the biggest telescope (Gran Telescopio Canarias 10,6m) from Roque de los Muchachos Observatory is located, i vistid the dome and telescope during a guide tour. I go often to the island for "astronomical"vacation, to make astrophoto's under a bortle 1-2 sky.
Great idea to do this Wido! But at least 75% of the fun for me is actually getting the image myself. Of course it’s also fun to take good data like this and create great looking images!
Me too, but like I said: Cloudy skies for 3 months now...
@@AstroForumSpace Ja, in Nederland zijn de wolken momenteel nou niet bepaald 'optimaal'
I have to say I’ve been tempted to do this. I’ve only had 5 or 6 clear nights since Astro dark returned and it’s nearly gone again here in Scotland
Bortle five bordering on six where I live Wido. I do have a Bortle two site just over an hours drive away, but it is in one of the wetest areas of the UK.
I fully understand your reasons for purchasing data from a remote observatory. I'm just waiting for the day someone starts fitting small imaging units to the some of the numerous satellites they keep sending up these days and hire them out to the public, be a great idea if you could afford it, never have to worry about seeing, weather, light polution, atmospherics and the like ever again. Back to reality, crossing my fingures for tomorrow night, decent forcast and the waning moon doesn't rise until after midnight!
Hope you have some clear skies tonight! I did see multiple satellites on the pictures I downloaded from spain and chile..cheers!
You must live in Scotland? Some parts of Wales are almost as wet.
@@martynh5410 North Wales mate, but currently I'm living just over the border in England in temporary accommodation as my own house was flooded a few months ago and is still uninhabitable. I have holidayed and worked in Scotland and it sure does rain, the midges used to be pretty fearsome at times as well.
Damn, Telescope Live is becoming the NordVPN of astrophotography.. 🤣
I live in Ireland, down around the south west, so I'm pretty used to having Bortle 3 skies.. But the problem, like the Netherlands, is the damn clouds and rain.
More than once I've setup my rig on a clear night, and had the clouds roll in before I even got polar aligned.
And I've often went weeks and weeks without a clear night, which is especially frustrating when you have upgraded the rig and have to wait to test it out..
Giving you an A+++++ for the explanations Wido but as for TL its more about what you can see from your home town thats part of the hobby
I see lots of clouds 😉
Empathise with your dilemma 100%. I live in Yorkshire which has dreadful weather at the best of times but for the past year has declined to be almost biblical. My preferred way forward would be to build a remote system at one of the hosted sites in Spain. However, I don’t want to do it on my own - yet - so might try forming a small consortium of 3-4 like minded imagers. Not so much cost for me as wanting to share the experience. Anyway, thanks as ever for a well-produced and targeted video. Cheers, Des
Hey Des, that's a great idea! I've been looking at some hosting facilities in Spain....I'd be willing to explore this further if you like. You can reach me on astroforumlive@gmail.com
I sometimes use Telescope Live, but vowed to get only the only those targets of the southern hemisphere that are not viewable from my location, so no harm done.
Still use my own telescope for everything can be seen on my hemisphere.
7:20 I have a Mountain Instruments MI-250, a much smaller version of the mount for the CH1.
It is a superb mount, and has performed faultlessly (apart from my own initial installation error) for about 4 1/2 years in a remote observatory in Spain. :)
Edited for time stamp
Nice work Wido, weather is my problem. It's been terrible this winter. I have a Bortle 2/3 site 40 mins drive away, but not much point until the weather improves. BR John
I am a novice to astrophotography and tried to get into it a couple of years ago but bought some faulty used gear and got totally discouraged.
Maybe this is a way that I can get back into my interest in astrophotography without the hurdles of overcoming my gear problems. Thanks Wido!
the big problem with bad skies is the LRGB , we can use narrowband 3nm or anything else but we have to sacrificed the LRGB
Traitor! Hahaha!! Completely understandable, Wido. It's so frustrating to have so much bad weather. I haven't dipped my toe into the world of remote telescope data yet, but I won't count it out quite yet -- or make any promises I have to break during astro 'dry spells' that seem to be getting longer and more frequent. Your images are absolutely beautiful! Super job on the processing.
😀😂👍. As a good (former) Catholic, I confessed on youtube, lol.
Wido! You went over to the dark side as opposed to the light polluted side. But I can totally understand, opportunities for our hobby are becoming more rare. Great processing of the data by the way.
lol, yes! Perhaps my kids can turn me to the light side again.
I completely understand that, at my location the lightpollution is also getting worse.
If I could start all over, I would buy a Smart telescope, then spend everything else on one of these remote sites. The final image speaks for itself.
Hi. I can understand your difficulties.
I live in Laval, Quebec, Canada, and it's bortle 8-9 here.
I have to use dualband, ha, oiii, and si filters all the time. Of course, if a drive about 1-2 hours north or west, I can reach bortle 4-5 areas in that case, I use broadband or dualband filters.
The nearest bortle 2-3 place is about 4.5 hours away.
I’d appreciate a full review please 😉
I'll put it on my todo list.
@@AstroForumSpace thanks. As a UK newcomer to Astrophotography I am very tempted by data access - for now I have a Seestar S50 and am snatching the odd hour when the skies clear here but it would be nice to test my editing skills and refine them without the environmental limitations and using a rig I will never be able to afford!
I think it might be better to send your telescope to a dark site host that you can control i seen astrofall charges just 150 a month to host ur scope
Very much enjoy all your videos, but this one really caught my interest. I have tried Telescope Live, but have not found data that I can easily process. I use PixInsight for both stacking and processing, but all my cameras are OSC. I have my OSC processing workflow down pretty well, but have not tried any narrow band. Does TL have any OSC data?
I only checked out their "observation bundles" and most of them seem to be taken in mon with LRGB or narrowband filters (Ha, Sii, Oiii). I'll explore this further! I guess since mono gives the highest quality, mono will be dominant in those facilities.
🇨🇱👋Howdy y'all!
Spain you say? Here in Asturias, northern Spain I only had let´s say 4 clear nights in 3 months, barely managed to capture 12P Pons-Brooks... 🙄
The data is not from 2024....
@@AstroForumSpace I know I know, what I mean is that the center and south of Spain are mostly clear all year around while we poor sods in the north have a climate more like what you describe in your area or the UK
All land astronomy kill starlink and others. A quit astrophotography and sell equitment. 😢