First the unpleasant winter, and then too much work. I'm barely able to keep up with the lectures I need to prepare, so maybe it's been a blessing in disguise that the winter has made it difficult to get out and observe. I really don't have the energy or, sad to say, the will.
That said, last week it was finally nice enough for me to get out and try to resume imaging. Amazingly, I remembered how to get everything put back together and working. The fist night by the time my polar alignment was done my target (Thor's helmet) had moved behind a tree. I thought I'd swing up to Regulus and take a stab at trying to image Leo I dwarf galaxy. I screwed up and instead centered on Gamma. Nice shot of it, but not what I wanted.
The next night I was ready for the Helmet and started shooting as twilight ended. The tree won the battle, though. All I got was 9 frames for a grand total of 27 minutes of H-alpha. Not nearly enough to get the fainter outer regions.
As expected, the Bright Nebula list has a gaping hole in the sky during spring, so I'll be imaging other targets until the summer milky way starts rising.
I'm going to go back and get Leo I, I think, only I'll use my TV 102 or C9.25 for it. And maybe I'll do some planetary imaging. Classes end the first week of May, and after that I'll be free to do as I please!
