What Time do you start shooting ?

It was probably discussed many times but……. Just curious if you all have some rules about starting time.

For broadband i always start at astronomical dusk but with narrowband i sometimes cheat to get more hours in and start at Nautical dusk. I live in Sweden at 58 degrees so my season is now over :(

Pretty much as soon as I can get a clear enough sub to start framing, then get guiding sorted then its more or less time to pack up 😂. But yeah sooner than I should.

Michael Smithers · May 12, 2026, 08:40 AM
Pretty much as soon as I can get a clear enough sub to start framing, then get guiding sorted then its more or less time to pack up 😂. But yeah sooner than I should.

This is me too 🤣

Typically, astronomical late into astronomical dusk.. however, if im shooting Ha or SII and my target is East. I might start an imaging run a little early to sneak in a bit more integration time, when it comes time to process the data, anything with a unusually high sky background gets culled anyway… if im shooting Lrgb or OIII, I dont start until its DARK.

Michael Smithers · May 12, 2026 at 08:40 AM
Pretty much as soon as I can get a clear enough sub to start framing, then get guiding sorted then its more or less time to pack up 😂. But yeah sooner than I should.

Pretty much what happened to me last night. Astro dusk was at 10:26pm. 9:30 I take everything outside,balance the rig, polar align, watch the stars until 10:15 then hit the start button. The rig slews and center, autofocus runs, guiding calibration starts, clouds come in, guiding calibration fails, I wait 30 minutes, look above to see nothing but clouds, bring everything back inside and go sob in a corner.

The end of astronomical dusk for me. If I start too early I’ll end up culling those frames because of low star counts anyway so it really isn’t worth it. The time leading up to sequence start that is better spent with prep work, checking collimation, getting a focus starting point, cooling the camera, making flats.

For DSO’s I start getting set up at civil dusk (tripod & scope out to cool down, run power cables to rig etc).

Might start taking flats and dark flats around beginning of nautical night so I can start polar alignment and guiding on or even before astronomical dusk.

Weather permitting I will generally run all the way up to dawn (yes I know!- but I can switch everything off and pack up in light)).

I’ll inspect light subs on PixInsight afterwards for usefulness and discard as required. Job done.

For BB I’m generally taking about 35 minutes to setup and start imaging. NB usually a bit longer, about 45 minutes (longer if guiding or focus gremlins need chased away).

If I try to eke out every last minute of “darkness” I lose a lot of subs to satellites. So I generally don’t bother until well into astronomical twilight.

Michael Smithers · May 12, 2026, 08:40 AM
Pretty much as soon as I can get a clear enough sub to start framing, then get guiding sorted then its more or less time to pack up 😂. But yeah sooner than I should.

This could be me :-)

Daniel Cimbora · May 12, 2026 at 05:00 PM
If I try to eke out every last minute of “darkness” I lose a lot of subs to satellites. So I generally don’t bother until well into astronomical twilight.

Why do you lose subs to satellites, are you tossing them ?

Scope prepares usually within 20 minutes of astro dark. Sequence starts 10 minutes before astro dark, usually puts it imaging right at astro dark. For my scope, I don’t really push much earlier though as it’s still acclimating and the first 20 minutes are usually rough looking.

As soon as astro dusk starts for NB, a bit after for broadband. But I push until very late morning usually, even if the last 5 subs or so are a wash. I’d rather have more than not enough.

Eric Gagné · May 12, 2026, 06:43 PM
Daniel Cimbora · May 12, 2026 at 05:00 PM
If I try to eke out every last minute of “darkness” I lose a lot of subs to satellites. So I generally don’t bother until well into astronomical twilight.
Why do you lose subs to satellites, are you tossing them ?

You’d be surprised how many people will bin subs with satellite trails through them… I might bin a sub when a commercial airline flys through the frame and you get the nose light, port and starbord wing tips, mid wing nav lights, blinking fuselage light and the tail light all through the frame - that’s a rubbish sub, but, one or two thin light streaks through one sub out of 100~300 subs is going to make 0 difference to my final stack with the rejection algorithms we routinely work with

I don’t let the dark or time tell me when, I let my camera tell me.

One of my most favorite keys is my delete key. I can chop off bad beginnings, or bright endings, or even whole nights. Over the years I’ve learned next year will likely have a better picture than this year or last year.

This sport is supposed to be fun and relaxing. Anymore, I get things started, then watch what is compiling in NINA, and go to bed and let it run. Next morning I can keep, cull, or trash the night.

I’ve been known to collect for many days on one subject before moving on to something new. I also just deleted all my files from last year to make room for this years gatherings on my working SSD. The carp from years past is just trash because things are always improving for me. I replace things that fail, or when an upgrade is needed. (I’m seriously considering a new laptop for my mount. Maybe a Linex loaded box-o-rocks to get the hell away from Microsoft and their incessant updates that FUBAR my 3rd party Astro Programs drivers.

But no time requirements for me. Just when the sky is ready.

Personally, I wait for nighttime. Might be excessive, I know

When it gets dark? What kind of question is this, honestly?

I'll start at sun -15°, halfway between nautical dusk and the end of astronomical twilight. For many of my local spots it doesn't get any darker past that point, anyway.

Extending the session to sun -15° at dawn potentially adds 45-60 minutes to a short early summer night at my 41° latitude.

I'm in crummy, light polluted, cloud-prone NE Ohio. I'm not inclined to waste any clear night and will squeeze every drop out of it that I can.

Clear Skies,

Phil

Jonathan Paul · May 17, 2026, 04:59 PM
When it gets dark? What kind of question is this, honestly?

The OP was asking, as the poll makes clear, at what point after sunset do people start imaging. Saying “when it gets dark” isn’t a useful answer.

Daniel Cimbora · May 12, 2026, 05:00 PM
If I try to eke out every last minute of “darkness” I lose a lot of subs to satellites. So I generally don’t bother until well into astronomical twilight.

You should dither, so your stacking software can do pixel rejection, and then you get to use the sub, only without the sat trail. Otherwise, if your target is west of Meridian, it’s gonna take some time before the target gets in the Earth’s shadow. If it’s really early, you’ll have trails in the east, before the Earth’s shadow gets high enough to block the sunlight from the satellites. And if the satellite is at a greater distance from the Earth, it’s going to be even longer before it enters the shadow. You probably knew all this, though….

Tony Gondola · May 17, 2026, 05:29 PM
Jonathan Paul · May 17, 2026, 04:59 PM
When it gets dark? What kind of question is this, honestly?
The OP was asking, as the poll makes clear, at what point after sunset do people start imaging. Saying “when it gets dark” isn’t a useful answer.

That answer actually falls under “Other”. May not be what you do, or I necessarily do, but it fits “Other”.

My light pollution is such that when I can see major stars I generally able to begin imaging, or more correctly, the lead up to actual imaging. Camera cooling, object choosing (Stellarium), my start up procedure, all take some time, and while that is taking place it is getting darker.

So by the time actual imaging is taking place in NINA, when it gets Dark is logical answer. If I was to put a time frame on it, I’d say 45 minutes to an hour after Sunset. Normal Sunset, not nautical or astronomical sunsets whatever those are. But simple everyday published weatherman sunset.

Or… when it gets dark. Dark enough to guide and image the soup de jour I pick for the night. 😉

And Dark enough changes each day, going later until Summer equinox, or earlier before Winter equinox. Lately old Sole is cutting into my sleepy time. I find I am retiring around 10 instead of 9ish.

I like to start a little early, even sooner than nautical dusk, purely to verify that the gear is working properly.

As with most things (other than religion and politics 😔) the correct answer is “it depends”.

In a perfect world, I

carry my gear out when it’s still daylight
connect everything correctly
wait until polaris makes an appearance
polar align, focus, etc
point at my target
start taking pics until I get sleepy
take it all back indoors

So, I take as much as possible, as often as possible, and then sort it out in processing as to what’s usable or not.

I set up in the daylight, then polar align as soon as I can see Polaris. After that I slew to my target and if it can plate solved and I can get a guide star, I go for it, then blink all my results and get rid of any that I deem brighter that the ones at astronomical dark, which I can know because all the images are time stamped in the file name. I don’t stand on ceremony, no point there’s always a delete button, and I don’t see it as a waste of time, because I go back in the house and watch tv. Of course I don’t stand on ceremony for any of my astrophotography, I’m just glad to get anything and leave the numbers for the guys with the expensive stuff at a Bortle 1 site that has 260 clear days a year, I get 260 cloudy days a year, so there’s no time to be picky.

When do you begin shooting.