What do you do while waiting for long exposures

[troypiggo]

It's night, you're shooting long exposures. You don't want to do anything that creates light pollution. You don't want to bump your mount. What do you do?

Read a book under a light?
Sleep?
Play on your laptop?
Shoot with friends and chat?
Drink beer?
Do you shoot at home so you can simply go inside and watch TV?
Do you go to some remote site in the middle of nowhere?
Does shooting long exposures require constant tweaking and keeping an eye on things that you're never bored?

I'm interested to hear what you all do.

[HSK]

I have discussions with my brother!

[Nighthound]

In the winter I'm warming up next to my portable heater or drinking hot coffee. And if that doesn't work I jump up and down or run around a lot.:D

I like to watch the sky for meteor activity or if I'm autoguiding I may watch the guiding graph on the lap top. I do try to stay involved and concentrate on the imaging for the most part so I don't get too lazy and end up with poor images after all that effort. The tweaking is usually worked out in the early going but if I have to do the meridian flip I have to watch things and make adjustments all over again. I always travel to dark skies and ideal imaging nights are hard to come by so I like to make the most of the good ones. I'd love to have an observatory to make things easier but if I ever got to the point that I flip the scope on and went to watch TV I'd switch hobbies. I tend to be a more hands-on hobbiest.

[Jeff]

Solve the world's problems with the old observing buddies. Last weekend the hot topic was: Is the media biased for Obama. I have NO idea how it got started.

[FarmerDave8N]

Use binoculars to scan the sky or just watch naked eye for meteors/satellites. I usually shoot at home, so I'll come in and check e-mail/warm up/etc. I've learned the hard way not to leave my setup running on autopilot for too long - I've lost guide stars or tracked into the trees before doing that.

[Naturalist]

Use binoculars to scan the sky or just watch naked eye for meteors/satellites.

+1

I'm right there with the gear looking at the stars, meteors and satellites.

I spent 15 years ice fishing in Minnesota while sitting on a bucket so I can handle these "Missouri Winter Nights" just fine! :cool:

[troypiggo]

Thanks for the comments, guys. I guess while I'm still learning I can have an astronomy book with me and read about and look at the constellations etc.

[Adrena1in]

Depends really.

Sometimes (mostly) I don't plan to be out for very long, so I just take a pair of binoculars with me and scan the sky while leaving the camera do it's thing. Usually take my booklet of constellations out with me, and use my phone screen or GOTOStar controller or little torch to read it...try and learn more what's up above.

Sometimes, if I'm taking lots of 30s shots, either tracking or not, (or non-star tracking for those videos), I just set it going and go inside.

If I'm autoguiding I'll have the laptop with me, outside in the summer, or in the lounge in the winter, and I'll check the images as they appear, perhaps go on-line, or just keep half an eye on the laptop while watching telly.

(Oh, always shoot long exposures from home too...never ventured to a dark site yet.)