Embedded Files
DATE : 28th/29th December 2014
START : 28:10 WEATHER : Out 0.0 DEG C - In 5.5 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 51% Moon - 50% Waxing Alt + 41
FINISH : 03:20 WEATHER : Out 1.9 DEG C - In 0.3 DEG C - Rel/Humidity 80% Moon Alt -23
UPDATE :
Imaging Crescent Nebula and taking Red tonight before it sets. Now moved on to M1 Crab nebula and taking some more frames in Ha. I was going to image the Horse head again but decided to wait until I get this new light baffle for the OTA.
TARGET :
Darks - 600s x 34
Crescent /nebula - 6 600 Red
M1 Crab - 34 x 600 Ha
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DATE : 25th/26th December 2014
START : 20:31 WEATHER : Out 2.5 DEG C - In 7.0 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 55% Moon - 19% Waxing Alt + 0
FINISH : 01:33 WEATHER : Out 1.3 DEG C - In 3.3 DEG C - Rel/Humidity 76% Moon Alt -39
UPDATE :
Out imaging PGC 35678 - Markarian 177 as mentioned by Mil Dave to me the other day. Today is Christmas day and as traditions go I am out imaging as it is clear. The galaxy is very small, only 0.4 arcsec so covers a pixel! So I won't see a bright object inside it as Dave thought we may have a chance on doing.
I also went to look at comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy however this is not visible until at least the 9th Jan 2015 as it is too low. Again this object was mentioned by the BAA as a comet to watch.
Next I took a look at IC 417 but it is not too bright and I decided to go after something more interesting, the Crab Nebula, or supernova remnant, M1.
But first I took some more images of the Horse Head in Ha, placing it slightly off to one side of the chip. My placement was not exacting compared to the other night. I will reimage once I sort out my light reflection problem. I have emailed Gino from OS and confirmed there is a problem with light reflections in the OTA. Gino is shipping a 3rd baffle to fit to the primary baffle. This he says should eliminate the stray light.
Next I moved onto M1 crab in Ha, but elongated stars on 600s exp causesd me issues, elongated from 2pm to 8pm direction so NNE to SSW focpos 53000, refocused to 57317 whilst on Ha. Previous focus was on Green, could be offset is incorrect? On further inspection yes. I have changed the offsets for Ha and Green. I should come out and do another full focus run across the filters and enter new offsets. The focus was out enough one side to cause an elongation. On refocusing on Ha the problem went away. DynamixPSF in PI is my friend here as it reports r as 7.29 rather than 9.69 when refocused. 1 being best focus with round stars.
TARGET :
Darks - 600s x 22
B33 Horse Head - 9 x 600 Ha
PGC 35678 - 1 x 600 Deep Sky
M1 Crab - 10 x 600 Ha
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DATE : 19th/14th December 2014
START : 18:34 WEATHER : Out 4.9 DEG C - In 9.5 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 55% Moon - 6.6% Waining Alt -37
FINISH : 03:05 WEATHER : Out 3.7 DEG C - In 5.0 DEG C - Rel/Humidity 85% Moon Alt +xx
UPDATE :
Out imaging Crescent in Green. I need to do RB next time out. I then moved on to the Horse Head B33 and found I was still getting this bright stratification across the image. Clearly I could trace it back to the bright star to the left of the horse. I decided to move the OTA slightly to the right so that the horse was nearer the bottom left of the image and that fixed the problem. The bright reflection disappeared. At about midnight I stopped imaging B33 as it had become too low at about +32 deg altitude and falling.
I moved on to imaging IC 410 the Tadpoles in SII. I am seeing an arc across the frame that I do not see in the Ha. I do however seem to see it in the OIII. Is it an internal reflection or is it light reflecting off the slit runners? Moved the dome not much difference though. I have now finished imaging IC 410 as I have more than enough SII data. It is currently +54 deg altitude and falling.
I have now moved to a new nebula for me which is IC 417 which is very close. I'm going to take some frames in Ha.
Well I took 2 x 600s and then the clouds came over. So I'm now taking Flats and Bias and then I'll head off to bed leaving the camera taking Darks.
TARGET :
Crescent Nebula - 6 x 600 Green - DONE
IC 410 Tadpoles - 5 x 1200 SII - DONE
Horse Head Nebula - 8 x 600s Ha - DONE
IC 417 - 2 x 600s Ha
Flats - Done
Bias - Done
Darks - Done
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DATE : 13th14th December 2014
START : 17:13 WEATHER : Out 0.9 DEG C - In 5.9 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 56% Moon - 58% Alt -35
FINISH : 01:47 WEATHER : Out 0.3 DEG C - In 1.5 DEG C - Rel/Humidity 89% Moon Alt +20
UPDATE : Out planning to image the Fetus in SII to complete my data for this object. Unfortunately the Fetus is too high right now and top of dome obstructs telescope at Alt +73 and falling. IC 410 - Too low at Alt +20 and rising. I'll image the Crescent Nebula first in Ha to take some more Ha data as it is at Altitude +59 and falling. I'll then move back to the Fetus later if clear.
Just finished imaging the Crescent Nebula as it sank to an Altitude of +37deg. I will now image the Fetus in SII as it is at ALT +52 and falling.
Now completed the Fetus as it is fairly low at 10pm this evening. I'll swing up and start imaging the Tadpoles in IC 410 in OIII.
Talking to John M on Skype, he is out imaging a 3 tile mosaic of the California Nebula in Ha. His frames are very smooth at 600s, his camera is fantastic. I thought I'd take a few frames of the Horse Head in Ha to see how good it is. I notice that I am getting flaring in the emission nebula form the star to the left. I then decided to image some more of IC 410 in OIII, however the 1200s frames have the classic hocky stick style for the stars, not sure if this is guiding problems or focus. I tried a refocus but not much joy. I had some problems plate solving so had to close TheSky X and then restart which seems to have sorted it.
I am now tired and the odd cloud is passing overhead, the Moon is now getting higher and my focus is still off. I'll leave it for tonight and head off to bed.
TARGET :
Crescent Nebula - 6 x 1200 Ha
Fetus Nebula - 6 x 1200 SII
IC 410 Tadpoles - 5 x 1200 OIII
Horse Head Nebula - 2 x 600s Ha
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DATE : 8th December 2014
START : 20:40 WEATHER : Out 2.2 DEG C - In 6.3 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 55% Moon - 94% Alt +12
FINISH : 20:52 WEATHER : Out 1.5 DEG C - In 4.8 DEG C - Rel/Humidity 64% Moon Alt +21
UPDATE : Out imaqing M15 in the East in RGB
TARGET :
M15 Glob - 8 x Red 300s (Start Alt +32 End Alt + 23)
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DATE : 29th November 2014
START : 17:39 WEATHER : Out 69.3 DEG C - In 14.4 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 65%
FINISH : 21:35 WEATHER : Out 7.0 DEG C - In 8.5 DEG C - Rel/Humidity 90%
UPDATE : Out imaqing Fetus in SII. I setup and started to image at Half Moon. By 8:50 the fog had started to appear, however I had not noticed as I was in the house watching Star Trek Insurrection which was great. The Fetus was once again sitting about Azimuth 300 deg and + 53 deg in Altitude. This meant that for 3 hours I would not need to move the dome! The final 2 frames at 20mins each were ruined by seeing. When I started to walk down the garden the fog was evident in the beam of my head torch. So I shut the dome up, started taking Flats and some darks.
TARGET :
Fetus - SII - 8 x 1200s (20min)
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DATE : 23rd November 2014
START : 20:12 WEATHER : Out 6.6 DEG C - In 10.6 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 65%
FINISH : 22:50 WEATHER : Out 4.x DEG C - In 6.x DEG C - Rel/Humidity 86%
UPDATE : Out imaqing Fetus in OIII & SII
TARGET :
Fetus - OIII - 5 x 10mins & 1 x 5mins, SII - 2 x 1200s (20min)
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DATE : 14th/15th November 2014moon
START : 20:35 WEATHER : Out 8.1 DEG C - In 11.7 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 72%
FINISH : 00:02 WEATHER : Out 6.6 DEG C - In 7.5 DEG C - Rel/Humidity 99%
UPDATE : Out imaqing Fetus in OIII and the clouds rolled in around midnight
TARGET :
Fetus - OIII - 18 x 10mins
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DATE : 7th/8th November 2014moon
START : 18:48 WEATHER : Out 7.2 DEG C - In 8.2 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 89%
FINISH : 00:52 WEATHER : Out 7.1 DEG C - In8.6 DEG C - Rel/Humidity -90%
UPDATE : Out imaqing Supernova for Ron Arbor to confirm for him. Then decided to image Propeller Nebula as it was high enough. The Moon is Full so not going to image Fetus. I have selected Ha and will stack what I have to produce Ha only image.
TARGET :
Supernova PSN J17143829+4340518 - 4 x 10 (green/ha/clear/deep sky}
Propeller Nebula - Ha - 14 x 10mins
Bias - 50
Darks - 14 x 10min
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DATE : 3rd November 2014
START : 18:51 WEATHER : Out 6.5 DEG C - In 8.6 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 80%
FINISH : 21:10 WEATHER : Out 5.8 DEG C - In 7.8 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 87%
UPDATE : Out imaqing The Moon using the 5" and the Webcam and using The SkyX Video interface to record through. Finally got focus with the new Barlow and took some AVIs. I'll attempt to process.
TARGET :
Moon - WebCam on 5"
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DATE : 31st/1st October/November 2014
START : 19:07 WEATHER : Out x DEG C - In xDEG C - Rel/Humidity - x%
FINISH : 00:12 WEATHER : Out x DEG C - In x DEG C - Rel/Humidity - x%
UPDATE : Out imaging with the DSLR through the Williams Optics to see if I can reduce the Coma by swapping out the Flatner 3. I found with nothing there was still much coma and with the original Flatner there was much less. Only the bottom left really so I will need to crop that area. I have taken half an hours worth of data of M31 to see how it will turn out.
TARGET :
M31 - DSLR 19 x 2min
Flats - 10
Bias - 50
Darks 10 x 2min
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DATE : 27th/28th October 2014
START : 18:35 WEATHER : Out 13.8 DEG C - In 15.7 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 82%
FINISH : 06:08 WEATHER : Out 12.9 DEG C - In 13.8 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 99%
UPDATE : Out imaqing Fetus. We (Bob and John) were going to go to the pub but decided it was too nice and we should image :-)
I'm on holiday so no work tomorrow so I'll pull an all nighter if the weather holds out.
So it has been a good night. I managed to image the Fetus until 1:30am when it was getting a bit low. I then switched to IC 410 Tadpole that Bob imaged what seems like many years ago. However it was 1.5 hours after finishing the Fetus that i got my first IC 410 image. This was mainly due to not knowing what to image and looking through various lists I have accumulated. I really wanted to image a spiral galaxy. Unfortunately the season has passed until next March for galaxies so I decided to find something else to image. That is when I found Bob's image and though it would be a good narrowband target.
Well it's now just after 6am and I am very tired. The air is full of water, 99% humidity. It is running down the inside of the dome as well as the outside. The grass is sodden with dew. Whilst I have been up all night I took the opportunity to process a couple of images from La Palma. I have placed them on my Flickr site
https://www.flickr.com/photos/25547068@N03/
I'm now taking Flats for the Ha, Bias and then I'll go to bed. The darks will have to wait until tomorrow night as the camera is struggling to keep -30deg C below ambient with the dehumidifier running full pelt including it's heating setting to help dry out the observatory.
TARGET :
Fetus - 15 x 20m Ha
IC410 Tadpole Nebula - 8 x 20min Ha
Flats Ha - 9
Bias - 50
Darks 0
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DATE : 24th/25th October 2014
START : 22:48 WEATHER : Out 10.7 DEG C - In 15.3 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 65%
FINISH : 01:48 WEATHER : Out 9.8 DEG C - In 10.4 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 87%
UPDATE : Out imaqing Fetus. I managed to get some more Ha this evening. I have decided that M51 will have to wait as it does not rise through my tree line until after 2:30am. So early evening Fetus is the object. I'd like to capture more data now my guiding seems better. This evening it was not as good as yesterday but better than any other time before I changed the settings.
John Murphy was out imaging the Crescent Nebula this evening too. He headed on in as the fog started to encroach on his seeing. Here it was fine until nearing 1:30am when some cloud rolled over. Although it seems to be patchy and may clear there is more moisture and fog may form soon. I decided to pack up when a problem hit me. In fact it was a small plastic wheel from the domes shutter as I tried to close it. The shutter jammed and the wheel fell off. It took some fiddling with a screwdriver in the dark to release the shutter and then all was fine. I refitted the wheel. I will need to be more careful as the shutter had caught on the door as I opened it and pulled the shutter over the end stops at the back of the observatory. Clearly my design floor that will need to be fixed maybe if and when I ever move the dome.
TARGET :
Fetus - 6 x 20mins Ha
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DATE : 21st October 2014
START : 21:31 WEATHER : Out 6.5 DEG C - In 10.9 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 55%
FINISH : 23:50 WEATHER : Out 5.3 DEG C - In 7.9 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 66%
UPDATE : Out imaqing Fetus and testing some changes to Autoguiding after speaking with John Murphy. I have changed the exposure from 15s to 3s and the Delay after Correction from 10s to 1s. The results from tonight are simply superb. Much rounder stars as measured in PixInsight using the DynamicPSF tool and the tracking graph is much smoother. I need to test on subsequent nights just to be sure that it was not just good seeing that made this successful.
TARGET :
Fetus - 2 x 300s Ha / 1 x 600s Ha / 5 x 1200s Ha
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DATE : 19th October 2014
START : 19:16 WEATHER : Out 14 DEG C - In 16.3 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 74%
FINISH : 20:15 WEATHER : Out 13.9 DEG C - In 16.1 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 82%
UPDATE : Decided to come out and start looking into my problem with elongated stars. Every photo I have taken so far with my new sertup has shown some drift in RA. Now you might ask, and quite rightly so, why I had not noticed this before now? Well the answer has to be because I have only just started processing the few images I have taken.
So I have focused the camera using Green as normal. I found I had to manually shift the focus from 60,000 where it had been to 54,000 and the run @Focus. The reason is the focus was far out and caused an error of Divergence. This was because I was always one side of focus rather than both. Then I slewed to a random star field and started imaging without guiding. 1,2,3,5 and 10mins. All were fine, only the slightest drift in RA at 10mins, which is not surprising given the focal length of my scope is 2.5m.
When guiding however I am convinced I see drift in RA. Is it really there? The guiding graph looks very good with sub arcsecond accuracy in both X and Y. I believe I need to find a piece of software (I probably already own this) that will tell me how round the stars are. For now, I'm shutting the dome and off to the pub with Bob and John to discuss. I took 1 at 5mins and 1 and 10mins for comparison.
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DATE : 7th October 2014
START : 19:43 WEATHER : Out 7.5 DEG C - In 12.6 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 64%
FINISH : 20:42 WEATHER : Out 6.9 DEG C - In 11.3 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 68%
UPDATE : Out imaqing the Crescent Nebula as imaged by Tim. It's nearly Full Moon so Ha should be ok and I'm waiting for New Moon to finish M51.
TARGET
Crescent Nebula - 7 x 300s Ha
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DATE : 4th/5th October 2014
Visit to Norman Lockyer Observatory NLO
Bob and I in a tent, Michelle in a B&B, Alan and Mil Dave in the caravan and JBS at the farm. Had an excellent evening observing. We were shown round the domes. Viewed Veil Nebula; Garnets Star; Blinking planetary Nebula; M57;M27;Pleideas and M13 through David Stranges 20" reflector.
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DATE : 2nd/3rd October 2014
START : 22:49 WEATHER : Out 12.8 DEG C - In 17.4 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 65%
FINISH : 01:30WEATHER : Out 11.7 DEG C - In 13.6 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 79%
UPDATE : Out imaqing Fetus however the seeing was not great and I noticed over the period of 1 hour the focus changed. I also had a real challenge getting focus. I need to activate focus componsation for temperature and see if that makes a difference. I also need to read the manual about the modelling for the focus. The clouds then rolled in around 1:30am.
TARGET :
Fetus - 13 x Ha
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DATE : 30th September 2014
START : 22:04 WEATHER : Out 14.7 DEG C - In 17.6 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 80%
FINISH : 23:13 WEATHER : Out 15.1 DEG C - In 16.6xDEG C - Rel/Humidity - 88%
UPDATE : Out testing image focus and guiding
TARGET :
Fetus - 7 x 300 Ha
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DATE : 26th September 2014
START : 21:17 WEATHER : Out 13.3 DEG C - In 18.3 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 61%
FINISH : 23:07 WEATHER : Out 13.5 DEG C - In 16.2 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 77%
UPDATE : Out imaging until the clouds rolled in some 45 minutes later
TARGET :
Foetus Nebula (Ha 6 x 300s)
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DATE : 22nd September 2014
START : 21:22 WEATHER : Out 9.8 DEG C - In 14.1DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 63%
FINISH : 23:49 WEATHER : Out 8.7 DEG C - In 12.3 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 74%
UPDATE : Out testing Canon 600D which has been modified with a Baader filter through Cheapastronomy.com :-)
TARGET :
M57 and M27
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DATE : 2nd September 2014
START : 22:03 WEATHER : Out 13.0 DEG C - In 16.9 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 67%
FINISH : 23:04 WEATHER : Out 12.3 DEG C - In 16.2 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 70%
UPDATE : Out imaging for a quick stint before work tomorrow. I do not have enought time to capture the Fetus before bed so I thought I would capture a few RGB frames of the comet again. This time I have set the tracking rates for the comet which is a feature of the Paramount MEII mount :-)
TARGET :
Comet C2014 E2 Jacques RGB
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DATE : 24th August 2014
UPDATE : It has taken me 3-4 hours to process this DSLR image from La Palma of Cassiopeia. This is my very first real attempt at using Pixinsight and my first attempt at using a DSLR. I have placed more information about the image and indeed various versions that I have created to show the detail here on a separate page. This is the first of my wide field constellations.
Below is the image in question and clicking on it brings up the large (5205 x 3465) original on Flickr, where as it happens you can find the 3 other versions. I have also created a Constellations section on the left and a page for Cassiopeia with more information.
Below is the workflow I followed. This is my first real attempt within Pixinsight and I have used the excellent blog from lightvortexastronomy.blogspot.co.uk by Kayron.
1) Batchpreprocessing Script to Calibrate the Lights
2) Star Alignment
3) Integration
4) DBE (removes the green) (SAVE RGB)
5) RGBWorkingSpace (reset channels to 1)
6) ChannelExtraction (L only) (SAVE L)
7) Background Neutrilisation using 2 previews but only using Background
8) Colour Calibration for both White and Background
9) STF Auto
10) SCNR (removes more green tinge) (SAVE ColourCal)
11) NOW FOR NOISE REDUCTION (STEPS 12-15)
12) Histogram Transformation on a Duplicate
13) Create an Inverted Mask
14) Remove small scale noise using ATrousWaveletTransform
15) Remove last piece of noise with MultiscaleMedianTransfer (SAVE NR)
16) NOW FOR HISTOGRAM STRETCH (NON-LINEAR FROM HEREON IN)
17) Move the Middle (midtone) slider to the middle
18) Move the Black-Point slider slightly to right and apply, then repeat both (SAVE Hist)
19) NOW FOR LAST NR ON RGB IMAGE
20) Create Inverted Mask using Step 6 and apply another ATrousWaveletTransform
21) With the Inverted Mask Apply ACDNR for NR
22) Use RangeSelection to create a new mask
23) Use ATrousWaveletTransform on Chrominance large scale noise
24) Now use HistogramTransform to move BlackPoint (SAVE NR2)
25) Now Blur the RGB image with ATrousWaveletTransform (SAVE BLURRED)
26) POST PROCESSING OF LUMINCANCE IMAGE
27) Open Luminance/Duplicate and Stretch and apply HistogramTransform to Duplicate
28) Follow Step 14 -15 then remove Mask
29) Follow Steps 17 & 18 and then one final stretch using both Blackpoint and Midtones
30) Create Mask and HistogramTransform with AutoClip Shadows and Highlights
31) GET RID OF BLOTCHYNESS USING FOLLOIWNG 2 STEPS
32) Follow Step 20 on the Luminance with a Mask
33) Follow Step 21 on Luminance with the mask
34) Prepare to increase contrast of Luminance using StarMask and then RangeSelection
35) Combine StarMask and RangeMask using PixelMath
36) Blur the Combined StarRangeMask using ATrousWaveletTransform x3
37) Create a mask on the Luminance with the new combined StarRangemask
38) THE FOLLOWING 2 STEPS ARE NOT GOOD ON STAR FIELDS
39) Increase Contrast using LocalHistogramEquilisation on Large Scale structures
40) Increase Contrast using LocalHistogramEquilisation on Strong Signal areas
41) HDRMultiscaleTransform to recover detail after a stretch
42) Sharpen with ATrousWaveletTransform (SAVE SHARP)
43) NOW WE COMBINE THE L AND RGB
44) Use LRGBCombination
45) FINAL ENHANCEMENTS
46) Use CurvesTransformation to add RGB/K S Curve
47) Use CurvesTransformation to add L enhancement
48) Use CurvesTransformation to add Saturation Boost
49) (SAVE AS FINAL)
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DATE : 19th-20th August 2014
START : 22:23 WEATHER : Out 8.7 DEG C - In 13.3 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 62%
FINISH : 02:50 WEATHER : Out 7.1 DEG C - In 10.8 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 81%
UPDATE : Going to start with some more Luminance data for the Fetus tonight. Clearly it was not clear yesterday even though the forecast was good. It landed up being a bank of cloud heading South East that Basingstoke was just on the Western edge of all night...typical.
I spent the evening taking another load of data for the Foetus nebula. After talking with JBS who was imaging the comet (Jacques) I slewed to image through the 12". However the comet was moving extremely fast and after a 15s frame the comet had moved. I will at John Murphy's suggestion align the frames on the comet for stacking and remove the stars :-)
I also targeted with the 12" the planet Uranus, however this is a very small featureless planet and would do better I fee through the 5" with the barlow!
TARGET :
Foetus Nebula (Deep Sky 22 x 300s)
Comet C2014 E2 Jacques RGB
Uranus RGB
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DATE : 17th-18th August 2014
START : 22:57 WEATHER : Out 12.2 DEG C - In 11.6 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 70%
FINISH : 03:13 WEATHER : Out 9.9 DEG C - In 13.3 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 81%
UPDATE : Before the half Moon comes up tonight I thought I would start imaging the Fetus in broadband. I have started by acquiring just over 1 hour through the Deep Sky filter. Now the Moon is up I will move on to taking a few test images of the Cheese Burger PLN NGC 7026, NGC 7048 another PLN also in Cygnus.
I then went on to test imaging NGC 7027, however it was apparent early on that a 300s shot was overexposed. After some trial and error I settled on some test shots at 45s. This is primarily due to the Mag 10 star in the centre of the PLN. I'm not sure right now if this is the progenitor or a foreground star.
Imaging IC 5117 which is all of 0.2 arcsec across is too small for my 12". I have recorded the size of the PLNs below and mentioned which are good targets. The result is that 0.9 - 1.0 arcsec is the smallest worth imaging.
The other thing of note this evening is that the laptops fan is making an horrendous noise, so I will need to look at cleaning this tomorrow. Well off to be as it's just gone 3am and I need to take the BMW to the garage tomorrow. I am still on holiday so I shall do some processing and go out tomorrow night if clear.
TARGET :
NGC 7008 Fetus Nebula - Deep Sky (12x300s) Flats (Deep Sky-0.3s)
Test Images
NGC 7008 (Fetus) /
NGC 7026 (cheese burger)
NGC 7048 / 1x1 arcsec / yes
NGC 7027 / 0.9x0.9 arcsec / yes
IC 5117 / 0.2x0.2 arcsec / no
PLN 91+1.1 / 0.4x0.4 / no
PLN 81-14.1 / 1.7x1.7 / In the clear no as very faint but through OIII yes
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DATE : 2nd-3rd August 2014
START : 23:58 WEATHER : Out 12.2 DEG C - In 16.3 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 63%
FINISH : 02:53 WEATHER : Out 10.7 DEG C - In 14.3 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 72%
UPDATE : First night out for some time after all the planning and then the visit to La Palma. I decided to go for imaging a favourite of mine that reminds me of Bob and Brendan in the early days. Maybe I will do the Cheeseburger next. Interestingly the Fetus PLN has several stars close together through the 16", however through my new 12" I cannot resolve them. Now this may be because they are not too sensitive to Ha or OIII; it may be because the seeing was not spectacular this evening. However I very much suspect it is the size of the scope that matters. I may ask John Murphy to image and see what he gets. I will also image just using the Deep Sky filter next time I come out and see if I can resolve them. Either way this will be a nice colour image I hope. I will synthesize the Blue from the OIII and Ha as I did with M27.
TARGET : Fetus Nebula NGC 7008 - Ha (6x300s) OIII (6x300s) Flats (OIII-3s) (Ha 20s) Darks (6x300s) Bias (10x0.001s)
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DATE : 23rd-24th July 2014
START TIME: 21:56
END TIME : 07:16
UPDATE :
So I’m up the mountain by myself this evening as Bob is tired and wants to go site seeing round the island tomorrow. I have arrived in the light at a new observing area outside some of the large observatories before the barrier to the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (ORM). It is the bend in the roud just past the Magic telescopes if you were coming out of the main site and heading East towards Santa Cruz.
Observing conditions are not too bad, however the wind is a bit blustery and during today there has been a constant wind of 35 km/h with gusts up to 50km/h. This is similar to the blustery conditions we experienced last night and the temperature is around 11deg c. Because of the wind I am finding long exposures an issue was the Tracker gets knocked around. I have therefore lowered the Manfrotto tripod to about waist height and placed it behind the car to protect it from the wind. This has afforded me the great fortune of being able to sit in the car, in the passenger side to work.I feel much warmer and sheltered from the wind and with a comfy seat.
My first target this evening has been what I believe is the WHT. I have taken a few test shots at different ISOs. I have settled on 3200 and am currently taking a run of 60 x 30s exposures untracked for star trails. Interestingly I have been watching the dome move between shots. I had started the run tracking, then realised that the dome would drop away with the land from the sky, not an effect I wanted. By taking this type of image I can stack for star trails; use 3 to 8 images to stack to make a nice night shot of the dome and finally I can make into a short movie of the Milky Way moving over the top of the observatory.
From the observing site I can see the INT, the Solar telescope, the massive 10.8m Gran Tecan and a variety of smaller scopes. This may turn out to be a very favourable observing site for next year assuming the wind calms down.
I have now moved on to imaging Aquila just above Scutum. I have centred on Altair and have just set a run of 10 x 180s @ ISO 3200 f5.6. The test images look good and before I set it going I refocused using EOS Utility as it was slightly out. I remembered to disconnect the USB lead from the camera whilst I use the external remote shutter release handset. This will give me about half an hours worth of data to play with. Once complete I will have imaged from the very South of Scorpius’s Tail through the Teapot Astrism in Saggitarius, up along the line of Scutum and into Aquila.I’m not close enough to mosaic, however I am pleased with my progress this week. It gives me much to contemplate for what to image next year.
Ophiuchus is now my target as it still sits high enough for me to see. I have checked focus which is fine and set a run of 10 images for 180s, so again my standard half an hour. When I get back to the UK and check the results I’ll know if this is enough data for next for each object. Checking the images for Aquila I think so. it’s now 12:30am and I still have plenty of time ahead of me to grab data, I’m hoping to finish this run by 1pm then I can move on to an overlap section of the Milky Way, from the fairly dim star Deneb Al Okab Australis in Aquila through to Sagitta and Lyra and in fact 8 constellations intersecting. This will give me the section above Altair to potentially mosaic in.
Well I checked the previous images for Ophiuchus and to my delight they are very good. The wind has died down and the temperature almost seems to have risen slightly. I moved the camera to Intersection 8 as I’m now going to call it and I think I have all the constellations present. I have now set this run of 10 images in motion whilst I check some of the fabulous data I have acquired. Incidentally M27 the dumbbell Planetary Nebula is present in the top right corner of the Aquila shot centred on Altair and in the left hand side and centre of the this newly acquired image of Intersection 8.
Next up is Cygnus. I will centre on the central star of the swan named Sadir. This will hopefully allow me to frame Deneb, SH2-117 and a lovely part of the Milky Way.
So that was not as easy and it’s fair to say that this was the first hicup of this evening. It too several attempts to frame Cygnus. I managed the first time to get 4 of the 5 stars that make the famous cross. The second attempt I got 4.5 and the third attempt I made it. I used Live View on the EOS Utility to help frame. I tried using the red dot finder that I borrowed from JBS, that up until now has been excellent. However I could not actually see it which was strange. It may be the battery has died. I will check the next time I move the camera.
It’s now 2:18am and my feet are getting cold. This is a first this trip. It may be because I am sitting in the car and a small draft is exhibiting itself round my feet (I have the door open). So I have put my thermal socks on and inserted 2 foot warmers, one in each shoe, that Helen bought for me before I came. She will be very pleased I used it and so will my feet. I hope to write further on the gradual increase in temperature of the balls of my feet at this 8,000ft height.
So as if not to be an exception for only having 1 issue this evening, I have just had the batteries die in the hand controller operating the shutter release for the camera. After 5 nights I now have the beeper going for each second, as this allows me to make sure the handset is still working. The first indication that there was a problem was when the usual high pitch beep started to slow and lower in tone, sounding very much like it was running out of power. It soon stopped and I replace them with the last set of rechargeables I have with me. Next year I need to bring more than 1 set. I have not started the Cygnus imaging again.
Completed Cygnus and now moved on to Lacerta. This is an extremely faint constellation and very difficult to find visually. Once I thought I had found it, recognising it in a photo is probably more difficult. The surrounding star field makes identification of any of the main stars almost impossible. After reframing 4 or 5 times I believe I now have it. Only once I have stacked will I be sure. To cap it off I have just started the run and the 2nd set of batteries for the shutter release handset are about to run out. The only way to then continue is to use the EOS utility on the laptop. The problem with this is that I can do nothing else whilst it is imaging due to the bugs in the software.
Moving on from Lacerta I took some silhoutte images of the domes surroundng the mountain side. I continued to use the laptop to take the final set of images before switching to the 15mm fisheye lens from Bob. I then took a few not very successful mages of the Milkyway and some with the GTC. As the Sun started to rise I packed up and took some images of the Moon followed by Venus and then Mercury and then some of the domes before jumping in the car and heading down for the last time and for breakfast and well deserved sleep. This had been possibly my best night of imaging yet. See you next year ORM.
TARGET :
Start Trails over WHT - 50mm Lens ISO 3200 Exp 30s x 60
Altair in Aquila - 50mm Lens ISO 3200 Exp 180s x 10
Ophiuchus Centred on Keplers Star SNR - 50mm Lens ISO 3200 Exp 180s x 10
Deneb Al Okab Australis in Aquila / Sagitta / Lyra / Cygnus / Hurcules / Ophiuchus / Vulpecula & Sagitta - Intersection 8 - 50mm Lens ISO 3200 Exp 180s
Cygnus - 50mm Lens ISO 3200 Exp 180s
Lacerta - 5mm Lens ISO 3200 Exp 180s
Star Trails over Gran Tecan - 50mm Lens ISO 3200 Exp 30s x 60
Shot of all observatories and Milkyway - 15mm Lens ISO 3200 Exp
All Observatories Silhouettes - 50mm Lens ISO 6400 Exp 60s
Darks 30s ISO 3200 x 10
Darks 120s ISO 800 x 10
Darks 60s ISO 6400 x 10
Darks 180s ISO 3200 x 10
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DATE : 22nd-23rd July 2014
START TIME: 21:20
END TIME : 02:55
UPDATE : Well this evening was meant to be us up the very top of the mountain by the Roque de los Muchachos. We left early from the hotel at 7:30pm and arrived about 8:40pm at the Roque. As soon as we opened the door I knew we were not going to stay. The wind was very strong and cold. Within minutes I was frozen and the tripods were never going to stay standing up. So we set to taking photos of the domes, watched the sunset then headed back down past the security gate. Fortunately only half the gate was down so we could drive around.Also I noticed the pole that John Mills had mentioned that could be lifted if needed. We proceeded out around the edge of the mountain and saw several vista points for taking photos of the observatories with the night sky behind or indeed star trails overhead. We may come up Thursday night and attempt this so we can get back to bed early as we are leaving the next day.
So what I have been up to? Well it is now 1:26am and I have just started to take my first set of images. It’s been my worst night yet for things going wrong. I thought I was going to image with the Williams Optics tonight, however the wind as I mentioned is strong and is buffeting the scope. Also I have trailing at 2mins. After many attempts over the past 4 hours I have managed to adjust the mount so that a 50mm lens does not trail at 3min but it does at 5min. I’m fairly well aligned, including now being level. I have worked out that with the EQ6 you need to turn the dec and azimuth to perform polar alignment through the polar scope. I’m now taking some images of Vega as that is just where I am pointing. I have also taken images at 800, 1600, 3200 and 6400 ISO to see what the difference is.
I must admit the results are astonishing! I know it effectively apples a gain inside the camera and that some people say this can be achieved inside PixInsight for example during post processing. However the results speak for themselves, and the Astronomers we met yesterday, 1 from Astomania.es swear by ISO 3200 and their images are amazing! Oh and they use PixInsight too. So for tonight I am going to continue using 3200 as a test.
I am now shooting just above the Teapot in Sagittarius and will take 21 mins worth of data through 6 x 3min subs. Once done I will move North slightly and then capture some more of this fantastic star field.
Well I tried to shoot just above but found that my battery had run out. Bob is still cold due to the low temperature, 11 deg c, not having enough warm clothing. So instead of the challenge of getting the Allen key and taking the camera off and replacing the battery, we will pack up instead. It’s not been a good night at all. I think the learning here has to be don’t use the EQ6 without being able to guide!
TARGET :
Vega - 50mm Lens - ISO 3200
Just above Teapot - ISO 3200 - 6 x 180s
Was going to image the following with the WO before I had trailing problems with the EQ6 mount. I will shoot these next year.
SH2 11 - Scorpius - War and Peace
SH2 45 - Swan Nebula - Sagittarius (M17) + IC4701
SH2 41 - Sagittarius - Nebula - just below IC4701
SH2 1 - Scorpius SH2 54 - Serpens Cauda
SH2 84 - Sagitta
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DATE : 21st-22nd July 2014
START TIME: 22:14
END TIME : 05:17
UPDATE :
Reviewing yesterdays images I have found that whilst all but one of the Scorpios Head images are fine butt nearly all the few Scorpios Tail images are trailed slightly. I will go back to using 3min subs tonight.
So now up the mountain at 9:31pm and back to the original Mirador tonight. This is because a group of 4 or 5 Astronomers from Spain have already setup where we were. On first polite conversation it seems they are hear to image the Zodiacal light using DSLRs and Astrotracks. I guess I will talk to them later once I have setup.
I now have the Tracker aligned and the camera pointing at the head of Scorpios. It took me a while to get the framing as near to yesterdays image as possible. I have focus and with the remote shutter release hand controller and set a run of 10 x 3min subs. I will check at the end and see if they are all in focus and not trailed. I will then set another 10 going before I move to the tail of Scorpios.
Looking at the frames for the Scorpios tail from yesterday none are any good so I have had to trash them :-(
I have now moved on and completed 1 hour on the tail of Scorpios. All 20 images look very good. I then decided to move to Corona Australis and Telescopium to find that the shutter release cable would not work any more. I eventually found the small adapter that pushes on the end of the cable and then inserts into the camera had pulled off. My guess is inadvertently during moving the camera to the new object.
We still seem to be plagued by car battery issues. The voltage now reads 12.2v at 1:30am whereas yesterday it read 12.4v at 6am. I hope it lasts the night as I need to charge the laptop soon as well as keeping the Tracker running. The group of astronomers we have with us this evening are from Spain. One speaks very good English, the others not so good. He gave me his website astromania.es and he has a fantastic geodesic dome he made. Also their images are fantastic. I particularly liked the 60d image of 30s ISO 3200 of the milky way. Just phenomenal. I could not believe one of the astronomers (there are 4 with 2 girl friends) was imaging the same part of Scorpios (the head) as me at the same time. What’s the chance?
20 images of Corona Australis and Telescopium have now been acquired. | then moved to Aquarius to see if I could image Neptune. I took a couple of test shots but unfortunately I could not see it, nor could I make out the pattern of the constellation. I decided to move on and did try to image another constellation, however for the life of me I cannot remember. It’s now 4:31 in the morning and I think my IQ has dropped :-)
Moving on I have just started imaging Cassiopeia so that I can test the seeing compared to the UK. The wind has picked up and is buffeting the camera and mount a bit. I had loads of problems trying to take this set of 10 x 3min shots. First the camera would not turn all the way round, this being due to the manfrotto ball head being to close to the Tracker base and catching. Second the on grove for the stalk on the head to move through was round the wrong side. I sorted this minor issue to find I then kicked the tripod. After re-polar aligning I| then realised I had touched the lens and the focus was out. One this was fixed the framing of Cass was not correct so I readjusted. I then kicked the tripod again and you’ve guessed it I touched the lens again! Once those challenges were overcome I started my imaging run to find the Canon battery ran out. I changed this knocking the alignment and the focus again……..
I at this point thought of packing up. However I persevered. I then started the image run again. Within seconds the batteries in the shutter release handset ran out. I changed them now under duress and stated the run again. I now have 30mins worth of data and as the wind has picked up again I am going to pack up early. I’ll take some short Darks for yesterdays images whilst I do. The Moon is now up, although only a slither of a waining crescent. Time for an early bed with no breakfast I think. It’s 5:17am.
One last learning from tonight is that if I use the laptop with EOS Utility and then close it with or without disconnecting the USB lead, sometimes the shutter release handset does not work so I have to turn the camera on and off to resolve.
TARGET :
Scorpios Head - 50mm Lens - 3min (180s) x 20
Scorpios Tail - 50mm Lens - 3min (180s) x 20
Corona Australis & Telescopium - 50mm Lens - 3min (180s) x 20
Aquarius & Neptune - 50mm Lens - Test Shot
Cassiopeia - 50mm Lens - 3min (180s) - 3min (180s) x 10
Darks @ 30s x 10
Darks @ 20s x 10
Darks @ 10s x 10
----------------
DATE : 20th-21st July 2014
START TIME: 22:28
END TIME : 06:15
UPDATE : So after a rough start I have now started to image the head of scorpios first. I setup this evening and aligned the iOptron Tracker. Took a couple of 30s test shots and all was well apart from slight trailing. I then noticed I had South selected on the back of the iOtron Tracker and at Half rate. As I looked through live view using the EOS Utility, as this was the only thing it is now good at, the star I was zoomed into was moving. Of course having the wrong setting for the Hemisphere is bad, however there 0.5x tracking rate helped it not be too bad. Switching both back to North and 1.0x so full speed tracking cured the issue. This is why I could only image for the past 2 nights for 2mins! Doh!
I then took 60s subs to test and the stars were trailing bad, including at 15s. Then the iOptron Tracker made a very bad rattling, crunching noise and turned itself off. To cut a long story short, it seems the rechargeable batteries I was using both Enegiser and a strange brand that came with the Tracker were only putting out 1.3v. Putting a new set of standard batteries in the camera from Durecell which measured 1.5v with the DVM worked. Now there is no noise form the Tracker and I can shot 300s so 5min subs! I have now set the camera recording 5min subs on the head of Scorpios with the cable release handset.
Well after what seemed like success 1 image in and the tracker stopped again. I took a reading with the DVM and it read 1.4V which is clearly not enough. I can only surmise that there is some extra friction or something inside causing the tracker to pull more current and drain the battery. So I pulled out the 12V car lead and plugged it into the car battery we have with us. This is easier than it sounds as I had to move my entire setup next to Bob’s as that is where the battery is running the EQ6 mount as Bob had forgot the Polarie which is still tucked up safely in the safe.
Now the Tracker being stable I managed to take around 11 x 5min images of Scorpios’s head. Unfortunately the last 3 shots the constellation was starting to set behind the rock face. So I have now moved to the tail of Scorpios and unfortunately the first image has a rock in it. I only managed 5 shots when the rock become to intrusive. I’ll try some more shots tomorrow of both parts of Scorpios and will endeavour to get the framing the same. Meanwhile Bob’s 5D Canon camera had run out of battery and he is now in a desperate rush tomorrow to find a power supply for the camera or a recharger as he forgot to pack his own in England.
Next I moved to something a bit higher in the sky, Scutum. I started with a 5min exposure, however the wind had picked up and possibly I had nocked the alignment of the tracker. This meant it was ever so slightly trailed. So instead I set to shooting 3min (180s) and set the camera running. Later after about 10 shots Bob was packing up the EQ6 and accidentally pulled out the 12v lead running the Tracker. I immediately noticed the training stars so plugged the cable back in. I had thought the worse, that the Tracker was playing up again however this time it was fine. I lost 2 frames before I managed to get back to imaging Scutum.
The Moon that has plagued us each night has risen again around 3am, although at least it is now a waining crescent at quarter phase. Tomorrow will be 4am to rise and 5am the day after with very little left. The last few days of the trip will be Moon free. After finishing the last 3min frames for Scutum, which gave 1 hour of data, I joined Bob in packing up at 4:15am whilst the camera took 3min and 5min darks.
Surprisingly enough I was later spurred on to staying up the mountain much later than we had originally anticipated by Bob’s use of his little compact camera. I too decided to wipe my 600D back out and start taking some short 10s, 20s and 30s exposures of the surrounding area with much success. I think the results will speak for themselves and this was a pleasant finish to what had been an extremely frustrating start.
Tonight has been the most frustrating with lots of problems. I need to find a battery tomorrow to use for myself or a much longer lead for the inverter and the supply for the Tracker. Failing that I need to spend £40 on a throw away battery. I also need to get a spare fuse for the Inverter as the one in the 12V lead has blown causing me to be unable to use it to charge the laptop from the car.
I forgot to take Flats again tonight. I must remember tomorrow.
TARGET :
Scorpios Head - 50mm Lens - 5min (300s) Partial
Scorpios Tail - 50mm Lens - 5min (300s) Partial
Scutum - 50mm Lens - 3min (180s)
--------------
DATE : 19th-20th July 2014
START TIME: 21:03
END TIME : 05:02
UPDATE : Night 2 up the Mountain and back at the Mirador. Arrived to find a bunch of youngsters with several cars in our favourite Mirador. So Bob and I setup to image from a spot a short distance away.
I started with imaging the sunset of the WHT followed by the WHT and another Observatory which is visible if you walk 50m down back down the road. I don’t know the name of it but will endeavour to look it up tomorrow. Next I followed Bob over to the edge of the caldera and decided to image the cloud base as a time lapse. Bob suggested 2min subs with a 1 second interval.
I did some investigation into the problem I had been having with the EOS Utility software, I found is was definitely a bug but not one that had been identified or fixed. By defocusing on the EOS Utility application even to go to the screen saver I lost seconds and then minutes on the Interval time. I have now given up with EOS Utility apart from helping to focus.
For multiple shots I am now using the external timer. This is useful to me and allows me to use the laptop throughout the night, occasionally downloading images in between image runs.
By 23:15 the youngsters partying had left our favourite spot and I relocated to be clear of Bob’s very bright red head torch that had blighted some of my images. Bob stayed and we continued to image. After reviewing the images I had taken of the caldera I decided to start a fresh and take another 2 hours worth. I then planned to image the Start trails once the Moon had started to come up after 2am. That would light up the WHT making for a good shot.
| took some test images to see what ISO and what exposure length would give the best image, showing the stars without to much trailing, showing the clouds nicely in the caldera and not being too noisy. I found increasing the ISO from 800 to 1600 and decreasing the exposure time from 120s to 60s gave the best image. I set the camera to to take as many as possible again using the external timer Bob brought me.
Well after some 60 shots the battery in the 600D ran out. I had a problem chainging it as the cover fouled the Manfrotto head. I had to take it off to refit, especially as I pulled the cover off ad it needed refitting. I then set the camera running again for more cloud in the caldera.
Sitting down at the mountain top some 8,000ft, I have now completed the processing of the first nights images. I have managed to apply darks and bias frames to the Teapot image and have also processed some other shots. I have 6 final images in total which includes 2 versions of the Teapot and a cropped version of the Moon with he rock face. In reality that gives me 4-5 photos from last night, which is not bad at all.
Ok so just taken about 1 hours worth of data since the battery failed in the camera and they are all out of focus. Of course the lens probably got touched when the camera was removed. Once again this shows you need to check the focus every time you start a new run. Images that will be good are 925 onwards.
So now 2:45am and the Moon is casting it’s light on the rock face to the right of me. Within the next 30mins it will wash the sky out and I will have to stop with the caldera. However I will then move onto the 2nd attempt at Star Trails with the WHT.
Whilst I had some spare time I took a look at the images I took in the Caldera that were seemingly 119s long so they trailed slightly. I was fairly annoyed as this would not make for a good movie. However stacking them together actually turned out to be a good idea and I processed the image whilst still up the mountain. It is rather good.
TARGET : (all at ISO 800) f/5.6
INT at Sunset - 18mm-55mm Lens - Various exposures
INT + JKÊ at Sunset - 18mm-55mm Lens - Various exposures
Caldera Clouds Time lapse - 18-55mm Lens - 60s @ISO 1600
Caldera Clouds Star Trails - 18-55mm Lens - 119s x 28 = 56min @ ISO 800
INT Star Trails 2nd Attempt 18-55mm Lens @ 20mm - 30s x 100
----------------------
DATE : 18th-19th July 2014
START TIME: 00:57
END TIME : 04:19
UPDATE : Just arrived in La Palma this evening and off up the mountain for our first night. Started with the Teapot Asterism. Started testing with 30s exposures then 60s, then 120s and all is looking very good. Set at ISO 800, Daylight for White Balance and f/5.6. I then decided and to shoot 180s to see the results. There was slight trailing in the starts at 3mins so I will try 2.5mins so 150s. I now have trailing at 2mins not sure why. I have just checked Polaris alignment and it was slightly out. I have now adjusted and will try again.
Setup took quite a while tonight for our first night. I guess it is to be expected. I have successfully weighed the tripod down with a whole load of rocks placed in a cotton bag hung beneath the new Manfrotto tripod I purchased just 1 week ago. I am very pleased with the purchase as it was reduced in price so for £109 instead of £160 and that included the Manfrotto head capable of carrying 4KG, which is more than enough, I’m a happy boy.
Well I have managed to take some 21 photos before the Moon arrived at 2am this morning behind the rock to the East. Strange thing is that 4 out of the 17 images had trailed. I’m not sure if this is a worm problem or I had not tightened the iOptron Tracker correctly.
We parked across the road from the Mirador and I was walking back from the car with something I needed when I thought I saw a cars headlights. It turned out to be the Moon just under half and shinning very brightly from behind on of the rock formations.
Bob saw various meteors that I missed during the night including one he picked up on one of his images. Challenges for for me were around the EOS Utility that stops imaging when it no longer has focus on the window. Also I noticed that if I don’t input a 5 second increment in time to account for the download time to the laptop. I failed to get a good set of star trail pictures because of this.
TARGET : (all at ISO 800) f/5.6
Teapot Astrism - 50mm Lens - 2min (120s) x 17
Moon Shots with Rocks - 50mm Lens and 18-55mm Lens - Various exposures
INT Star Trails in Moonlight - 18-55mm Lens @ 20mm - 120s x 10
Caldera Shot - 18-55mm Lens @ 20mm - 30s x 2
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02/06/14 - Quick gap in the clouds that have plagued me for the past few weeks. I dashed out at 22:05 to view Mars to find that it was behind the ever growing Walnut tree. I feel this needs to be cut in the Autumn! I then slewed to the Moon to take a look through the 5” Tak with the 14mm Radian and did a quid sketch on any piece of paper I could find. What I saw was Lower Keldysh crater above which sat Hercules and to the right of it Atlas. I could make out the infield old crater below.About 1 o’clock from this I could seed Cephus with it’s small bright crater inset at 5 o’clock to it’s face. Above this at 1 O’clock was Franklin.I could also make out the remains of the crater now infilled that Chevallier sits within.Then the clouds rolled in. I need to hoover the dome out as I think I left it open the other day and Fluffy got in and slept on my chair followed by the laptop that now is making a noise due to the fan being clogged up with hair! I came in at 22:37
DATE - 5th-6th June 2014
START : 21:58 WEATHER : Out 10.01 DEG C - In 15.9 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 51%
FINISH : 01:19 WEATHER : Out 7.3 DEG C - In 10.1 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 73%
UPDATE - Still very light out. I'm going to attempt to get a few frames of Ceres and Vesta that are very close together in Virgo.
So I have managed to image both Minor Planets with the 600D on the WO. I have also taken a few frames through the OS. I won't bother taking Darks with such little data for the OS. The 600D does AutoDarks for convenience.
TARGET : Ceres & Vesta
17 x 60s - 600D-72mm WO Ceres & Vesta
3 x 180s - Deep Sky Filter - OS 12" Ceres
1 x 180s - Deep Sky Filter - OS 12" Vesta
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DATE - 17th-May 2014
START : 21:45 WEATHER : Out 14 DEG C - In 18.2 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 70%
FINISH : 22:33 WEATHER : Out 14 DEG C - In 18.2 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 70%
UPDATE - Still light outside so decided to do some visual. Bob lent me the Tak 2.5 x Barlow. Using the 24mm Panoptic with the Barlow I slewed to Jupiter and a crisp disk with distinct cloud bands appeared. I then swapped to the 14mm Radian with the 2.5 x Barlow and for a while the disc was steady, I could see at moments the details fo the storms in the atmosphere. Fleeting glimpses then they were gone. After a while, maybe 10 mins the seeing disrupted the view and I realised Jupiter had sunk behind the tip of next doors tree. and the altitude of Jupter at this time of night was quite low. So I switched to Mars.
Mars showed a clean steady red disc with the 14mm Radian and the 2.5 x Barlow. I did not bother with the 24mm. Straight away I was afforded a view of surface features, distinctly in the right side of the disk almost at the top. The marking was almost curved across the top of the disc. Now I need some sleep before tomorrow so I will leave the planets turning in the heavens whilst I sleep.
TARGET : Jupiter & Mars
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DATE - 12th May 2014
START : 21:16 WEATHER : Out 9.0 DEG C - In 13.3 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 58%
FINISH : 22:34 WEATHER : Out 8.8 DEG C - In 12 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 63%
UPDATE - Eyeballing Jupiter through the 5" Tak with the 14mm Radian. Extremely pretty view! I then imaged Jupiter through the 12" just to give it a go. It's still not dark either but at least a single image showes the band. This was through the Deep Sky (light polution) filter. I used the Subframe method as described by Ron Arbour last weekend at the TA Meeting. I then went on to view Mars, which looked fantastically red through the Tak and then on to Saturn. This was poorly placed behind a cherry tree I am growing (maybe not for much longer) at 22:16. So very low. However Saturn was at opposition at the weekend so it looked possibly it's best. I always find viewing the planets, especially Saturn makes me feel at home.
I also noted the viewing position in the down was not great for Saturn early on as I was practically sitting on my desk to view it! I really need the Williams Optics Diagonal (currently lent to Bob) and a Barlow. I am using Tim's right now in the 5" SkyWatcher for the WebCam so did not want to disturb it. 2 Barlows for the wish list I guess!
Right off to bed as work early tomorrow :-(
TARGET : Jupiter 100 x 0.05s Deep Sky RiDK 12" QSI 683
Visual through Tak FS 128 Doublet (5")
Saturn - Visual
Mars - Visual
Jupiter - Visual
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DATE - 6th May 2014
UPDATE - Bob helped install the Tak FS128 today. yesterday Bob machined a dovetail plate for me and milled in a 'puck' style fixing into it. He also milled several weights to help the counterbalance. All in all a good day. I even managed to give the observatory another coat of Cupinol. I had missed 3 sides 10 years ago so I did those and recoated the others. Looks new!
Very happy now that the entire setup is complete, looking forward to first light through Brendan's Tak which I have borrowed. Excited!
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DATE - 2nd/3rd May 2014
START : 21:58 WEATHER : Out 10.4 DEG C - In 6.2 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 65%
FINISH : 01:50 WEATHER : Out 2.2 DEG C - In 5.3 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 75%
UPDATE - Out imaging M51 luminance frames and the Comet which is very close. I have taken some images of the comet with the DSLR on the Williams 72mm and with the QSI on the 12". Here is a 5min subframe for the luminance.
TARGET : M51 Luminance and Comet C/2012 K1 Panstarrs
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DATE - 26th April 2014
START : 22:07 WEATHER : Out 7.5 DEG C - In 12.1 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 60%
FINISH : 22:30 WEATHER : Out 24.x DEG C - In 8.x DEG C - Rel/Humidity - xx%
UPDATE - within 15mins the clouds rolled in :-(
TARGET :
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DATE - 19th April 2014
START : 21:53 WEATHER : Out 6.1 DEG C - In 10.1 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 57%
FINISH : 23:39 WEATHER : Out 24.8 DEG C - In 8.9 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 62%
UPDATE - out imaging. only 1 5min frame for m51 as it was hazy and cloud was about to roll in
TARGET : M51 and object noticed by Mil Dave
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DATE - 18th-19th April 2014
START : 22:58 WEATHER : Out 3.6 DEG C - In 6.7 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 64%
FINISH : 00:54 WEATHER : Out 2.1 DEG C - In 5.5 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 65%
UPDATE - out imaging
TARGET : M51
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DATE - 16th April 2014
START : 21:25 WEATHER : Out 5.1 DEG C - In 12.1 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 34%
FINISH : 22:xx WEATHER : Out 5.x DEG C - In 10.x DEG C - Rel/Humidity - xx%
UPDATE - trying to image ISS this time using QSI and 12". I~ need to put CCD Inspector back on my laptop and find my serial number for TSX for the Satellite Tracking addon.
TARGET : ISS
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DATE - 15th April 2014
START : 22:15 WEATHER : Out 5.1 DEG C - In 10.2 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 43%
FINISH : 22:44 WEATHER : Out 5.1 DEG C - In 10.2 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 54%
UPDATE - trying to image ISS this time using Video mode on the 600D
TARGET : ISS
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DATE - 14th April 2014
START : 21:52 WEATHER : Out 6.6 DEG C - In 11.9 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 46%
FINISH : 22:50 WEATHER : Out 5.1 DEG C - In 10.1 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 54%
UPDATE - Full Moon, decided to take an image of it with the 600D on the WO 72mm so I could use as a crude map for craters I have imaged. I also reset the Field of View of the 600D hopefully correctly tonight.
TARGET : Moon
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DATE - 13th-14th April 2014
START : 20:34 WEATHER : Out x.x DEG C - In x.x DEG C - Rel/Humidity - xx%
FINISH : 00:12 WEATHER : Out 6.6 DEG C - In 10.4 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 68%
UPDATE - Imaging ISS/Moon/Mars, Mars turned out to be a bit more difficult! ISS a challenge, it was on the chip of the 72mm WO with the 600D however even at 1/500s seemed to be out of focus and/or over exposed. Here is my stacked image of Crater Gassendi near Mare Humorum. You can clearly see the rile? running down the left side (above in this image) of Mare Humorum.
TARGET : Moon (Crater Gessendi) Mare Humorum, ISS and Mars (failed)
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DATE - 23rd March 2014
START : 18:57 WEATHER : Out 3.0 DEG C - In 10.0 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 48%
FINISH : 21:18 WEATHER : Out 2.7 DEG C - In 6.3 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 62%
I cleaned the filters today using a special pen that John mentioned to me. I have also inserted a Luminance (clear) filter in position 8 of the filter wheel. Because I removed the camera and filters I need to refocus the camera with each filter (although the offset should work, however TSX uses literal positions!). Below are the focus positions of the original setup and that from tonight. The two that were wildly out were SII and OIII. This may be bad focus the original night.
I then tried to solve the image from the Lodestar Guider, however I could not get this to work. I went into the FoV and cleared the offsets and the rotation angle and still no luck. I even used the imagescale I thought I had before of 0.63 but this did not work. So I'll try another night as i have an early start in the morning and it was then 8pm. I moved on and re calibrated the guider which worked first time! It then guided perfectly :-)
I then took 5 frames of M51 @ 300s in Red.
TARGET : M51 (5 x 300s - Red)
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DATE - 15th-16th March 2014
START : 18:00 WEATHER : Out 10.9 DEG C - In 17.4 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 45%
FINISH : 01:18 WEATHER : Out 6.3 DEG C - In 9.6 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 74%
UPDATE - Out already as nice and clear. Plan is to get @Focus sorted and then guiding working. If I have time I'll chase a satelite and as my light sheet is being fixed by my friend Bob I cannot take any serious images yet. I will take some flats using the sky just after sunset to expose each filer and look at the dust I have. I belive from my messier marathon test images that they all need cleaning as well as possibly the corrector.
So an update on where I am at 8pm.
I have successfully tested the change to the @Focus2 feature. The change suggested on TheSkyX (TSX) forum by John was to change the Pre Flush Exposure from Normal to Modest in the Camera Settings dialog box. The Pre Flush Exposure determines how aggressively the pixels in the CCD are flushed (emptied) between exposures. A higher number or in my case a more aggressive setting means they are emptied very thoroughly. However the Normal setting seems to cause this Error 206 in TSX. I have reported the finding back to Software Bisque to see if they know why it is happening. Meanwhile the autofocus is working.
Now the settings for the @Focus2 feature are Samples 10, Averaging 3 and Range 10,000. This is the largest change as my focuser allows a total of 105,000 steps the 1,000 figure they have as standard was not enough for the feature to work out the focus point. This is largely due to not enough samples being collected far enough each side of focus. I have an Exposure time of 1second that seems to be enough to produce the 20,000 ADU required. I will now work through all the filters and change their focus positions and feed them into the setup. I'll document the findings once complete.
Time now is coming up to half one. I have successfully managed to get Autoguiding working. I will attach the images tomorrow of the settings. I have also fixed the placement of the FoV for the philips Toucam. Finally I have tested the satellite tracking feature which looks very good. I need to find some bright satellites to test on. For now it's off to bed for me.
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DATE - 14th March 2014
START : 19:24 WEATHER : Out xx DEG C - In xx DEG C - Rel/Humidity - x%
FINISH : xx WEATHER : Out x DEG C - In xx DEG C - Rel/Humidity - x%
UPDATE - Out trying to get lodestar working. Really foggy then cloudy so not much completed. I setup FoV on the laptop for the Toucam however the machine Blue Screened! I hate Windows! I managed to re-setup later although I will have to check again tomorrow night. Struggled to get guiding working. Error 554 then 556. Again not great and the calibration was not working. I have set some darks and bias for Full Calibration and will check tomorrow if this helps as again I was checking but chasing the one star I could see.
TARGET :
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DATE - 11th March 2014
START : 21:40 WEATHER : Out 5.0 DEG C - In 9.5 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 64%
FINISH : 22:56 WEATHER : Out 3.9 DEG C - In 7.90 DEG C - Rel/Humidity - 72%
UPDATE - Out looking at Lodestar and Philips Toucam, I managed to connect the Lodestar but not get guiding working yet. I think I need to change some settings.
I did however manage to get the philips Toucam recognised and installed under Windows 7 by flashing the Firmware with that from another camera, the SPC900NC which is the same insides as the Toucam just a different exterior mould. The link below shows how to do this and very worthwhile.
http://www.sevenforums.com/drivers/103347-philips-toucam-pro-driver.html
TARGET :
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DATE - 8th-9th March 2014
START : 20:587 WEATHER : Out 6.6 DEG C - In 10.3 DEG C Rel/Hum - 61% (dome open 4 5 hours)
FINISH : 04:31 WEATHER : Out 5.2 DEG C - In 9.5 DEG C Rel/Hum - 65%
UPDATE -
Tonight I thought I would go out and attempt the CCD Messier Marathon. Now I know the Moon is half and I know I went out late and therefore missed some early objects. However, it would afford me the opportunity to give the new system a shakedown so to speak. So off I went. It's now 2:56am at the time of writing and things are going ok.
I'm on Target Object number 59 which is M91, part of the Coma Cluster. I have spent some time in this area with the Virgo set of Messier objects. I have bagged some 46 objects so far and the setup is working brilliantly. Well almost..... So I have had some teething problems this evening. Focus is the major one. I kept seeing error 206 using @Focus2. I have placed a question on the Bisque forum and so far I have had suggestions to upgrade to the latest daily build. I have done this and am now at 7715. However, as per another users comment, I still have the problem. I'll wait and see what they come back with. The other problem I have is not completing the focus run. I get error 7001 and this is a Divergent error. I think it means it can't focus. Again I am waiting for a reply. I did however manage to change the Range parameter to 2000 from 1000 and this on occasions allows me to complete a focus run, although the resulting charts do not look like a typical V. This is most probably because I do not have enough travel in movement. A 1000 range may be too small given the 105,000 total range of my FLI Atlas focuser. Again I'll await a reply.
But some things have worked very well indeed. I have worked out how to store the offsets for the filter positions which is useful. The Tpoint model I am using along with ProTrack have made a superb difference to the mount. I can slew 360 degrees around the sky, move some 50degrees in Altitude and the object appears smack bang in the centre of my CCD chip! Astounding.
A more annoying thing with TheSkyX is when you do a focus run and the system picks a suitable star, the Observation List you are working from (and in my case the Messier Marathon list) is replaced. I will log another question on the forum about this.
On a more positive note, I received my Starlight Xpress Lodestar guide camera back in the post today. I have found the service from Terry Pratt at SX has been first class, second to none, top notch! He fixed the camera, which had a driver chip failure for me and shipped back within 2 days. He responded to me late at night and he did not ask for any money. I did finally pay him a small charge as I felt compelled to as the service was excellent and the camera 3 years old. Well all I can say is Terry, Well Done!
So I will continue imaging, now on Target Object 63 which is M49 in Virgo and then I will update more later.
So it's now 4:29am and I need to go to bed as I have a birthday lunch tomorrow with my In-Laws. I have bagged 60 objects in total and the quality of the images was hugely better than when I had the 16". I took a few photos with the DSLR on the 72mm WO and they will be interesting. I noticed one corner looked particularly flared so looks like something is not straight in the image train. M27 and M57 and some of the Globs looked good though.
Well off to bed.
TARGET :
M33
..........
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DATE - 7th March 2014
START : 21:52 WEATHER : Out 5.6 DEG C - In 10.7 DEG C Rel/Hum 67%
FINISH : 02:05 WEATHER : Out 4.1 DEG C - In 6.4 DEG C Rel/Hum 82%
UPDATE - Tonight was surprisingly clear. I was not expecting this. As the evening drew on the cloud cover which was high level cloud initially got worse and by 2pm I could not see any stars. I spent this evening performing more TPoint runs of 22 points. This was to refine again the polar alignment. Below is the output of my first run tonight.
Northern Hemisphere Polar Alignment Report
Important information:
ME is the vertical misalignment of the polar axis of an equatorial mount.
MA is the misalignment of the polar axis of an equatorial mount to the left or right of the true pole.
The altitude report shows the adjustments necessary to align with the refracted pole, not the true pole.
Azimuth
Recommendation: Make the following azimuth adjustment...
Supporting information
MA is fixed at 274.7.
For latitude +51° 17' 10", rotate the azimuth axis West 439.2 arcseconds (7.3 arcminutes).
Paramount ME II: Loosen the right knob and tighten the left knob 9.4 tics.
Altitude
Recommendation: Altitude alignment is excellent. No additional adjustments are necessary.
Supporting information
ME is fixed at -58.3.
'Ideal ME' = -46 arcseconds (the refracted pole).
ME adjustment to get to above 'Ideal ME': -13 arcseconds (-0.2 arcminutes).
The polar axis should be lowered 13 arcseconds (0.2 arcminutes).
Paramount ME II: Lower the polar axis 0.2 tics.
As can be seen from the above report, the Altitude adjustment is spot on which is great. However I need to perform another run to improve the Azimuth alignment. I then performed another 22 TPoint run and the report below was produced.
Northern Hemisphere Polar Alignment Report
Important information:
ME is the vertical misalignment of the polar axis of an equatorial mount.
MA is the misalignment of the polar axis of an equatorial mount to the left or right of the true pole.
The altitude report shows the adjustments necessary to align with the refracted pole, not the true pole.
Azimuth
Recommendation: Azimuth alignment is good enough. No additional adjustments are necessary.
Supporting information
MA is fixed at 44.3.
For latitude +51° 17' 10", rotate the azimuth axis West 70.8 arcseconds (1.2 arcminutes).
Paramount ME II: Loosen the right knob and tighten the left knob 1.5 tics.
Altitude
Recommendation: Altitude alignment is excellent. No additional adjustments are necessary.
Supporting information
ME is fixed at -53.6.
'Ideal ME' = -46 arcseconds (the refracted pole).
ME adjustment to get to above 'Ideal ME': -7 arcseconds (-0.1 arcminutes).
The polar axis should be lowered 7 arcseconds (0.1 arcminutes).
Paramount ME II: Lower the polar axis 0.1 tics.
So there you have it, pretty perfect polar alignment in both Alt and Az. I next wanted to have a robust Tpoint model to keep now that I had made all the adjustments. As tonights seeing was terrible and not good enough for imaging I ran a longer TPoint session. I managed to capture 85 points.
This is important for 2 reasons. Firstly a 30point model or above is recommended to run the Super Model algorithm which would apply some 'Terms' that would improve my pointing accuracy. The higher the number of points in my model the better the resulting Super Model. The second reason is for turning on ProTrack. This requires a model in excess of 50 and would allow me to track much more accurately than ever before. This is the setting I wanted to use on the original ME and could not. Why? Because I suffered from mirror flop on the 16" and you could not turn it on for a non fixed mirror. No with the RiDK 12" I can do this. So I performed another TPoint model, applied the Super Model and then turned on ProTrack.
Unfortunately then the clouds rolled in as well as the fog!
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DATE - 3rd March 2014
START : Early
UPDATE - Out TPointing for polar alignment tonight. By using the Software Bisque TPoint software I can refine my polar alignment to the refracted pole much more accurately than you ever could with a polar scope. So I ran a couple of 22 point TPoint runs and then looked at the Polar Alignment. Below is the exact output.
Northern Hemisphere Polar Alignment Report
Important information:
ME is the vertical misalignment of the polar axis of an equatorial mount.
MA is the misalignment of the polar axis of an equatorial mount to the left or right of the true pole.
The altitude report shows the adjustments necessary to align with the refracted pole, not the true pole.
Azimuth
Recommendation: Make the following azimuth adjustment...
Supporting information
MA is fixed at 229.7.
For latitude +51° 17' 10", rotate the azimuth axis West 367.3 arcseconds (6.1 arcminutes).
Paramount ME II: Loosen the right knob and tighten the left knob 7.8 tics.
Altitude
Recommendation: Altitude alignment is good enough. No additional adjustments are necessary.
Supporting information
ME is fixed at -102.4.
'Ideal ME' = -46 arcseconds (the refracted pole).
ME adjustment to get to above 'Ideal ME': -56 arcseconds (-0.9 arcminutes).
The polar axis should be lowered 56 arcseconds (0.9 arcminutes).
Paramount ME II: Lower the polar axis 1.0 tics.
TARGET :
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DATE - 1st - 2nd March 2014
START : 20:27 WEATHER : Out 1.1 DEG C - In 5.3 DEG C Rel Humidity --
FINISH : 02:43 WEATHER : Out 3.4 DEG C - In 6.3 DEG C Rel Humidity 82%
UPDATE - So I spent many hours today continuig the cabling of the new setup. I ran another 2 cables through the MEII mount. This was another power, this time for the StellaCam II and a coaxial cable for the video. I will replace this later with Power and USB when I upgrade with a newer webcam. However for now it works.
I also spent a lot of today mapping my horizons. This is really important to understand the lowest I can see. It took me over 2 and a half hours to complete, with the aid of the 600D on the Williams 72mm. I followed the horizon and plotted the results in TheSkyX. Below is the result.
So to this evening. Well I went out primarily to continue polar aligning. I had managed to rough polar align as detailed below. However now I wanted to refine this using the TPointing Add On to TheSkyX. The Bisque brothers have updated this to make it far easier. Now I can use the automatic calibration run process which means it selects the targets. It takes an image and it plate solves using ImageLink, which by the way is a fantastic feature because it works! So I spent 30-40 minutes pushing the dome round whist the automated telescope system slewed round the sky taking images and plate solving. I did find originally that it failed a few times, but this was due to not a long enough exposure. However on upping this to 10seconds from 2 seconds all worked. 22 Points were mapped and calculated. The adjustment the first time round was in both Altitude and Azimuth which I expected, especially given that was similar to the last time I did this with the original ME. Below is the exact output.
Northern Hemisphere Polar Alignment Report
Important information:
ME is the vertical misalignment of the polar axis of an equatorial mount.
MA is the misalignment of the polar axis of an equatorial mount to the left or right of the true pole.
The altitude report shows the adjustments necessary to align with the refracted pole, not the true pole.
Azimuth
Recommendation: Make the following azimuth adjustment...
Supporting information
MA is fixed at 247.0.
For latitude +51° 17' 10", rotate the azimuth axis West 394.9 arcseconds (6.6 arcminutes).
Paramount ME II: Loosen the right knob and tighten the left knob 8.4 tics.
Altitude
Recommendation: Make the following altitude adjustment...
Supporting information
ME is fixed at 579.9.
'Ideal ME' = -46 arcseconds (the refracted pole).
ME adjustment to get to above 'Ideal ME': 626 arcseconds (10.4 arcminutes).
The polar axis should be raised 626 arcseconds (10.4 arcminutes).
Paramount ME II: Raise the polar axis 10.8 tics.
After adjusting I noticed some cloud rolling in so I had a tea break and this was 10pm.
After tea, I decided to fit the guider camera to the QSI. I realised the QSI had an adjustment ring for focusing the guider camera after reading the manual. However after some 50 minutes I still failed to get the camera working. I installed the updated driver so that it connected properly. I had to install the new power supply to the D-Link USB hub as it needed more power. The problem here is this is now the only cable not through the mount. I cab't run anymore cables so instead I;ll use a splitter on one of the other power cables and supply from there.
The main problem I have with the Lodestar is that I cannot see any stars nor focus because of this. I eventually gave up and moved on.
Next I decided to take my 'First Light' image. I slewed to M81, a lovely spiral galaxy and took a 5mins image throughout he Deep Sky filter. The first one was very poor due to a bit of cloud rolling in during the last minute. The second attempt was much better and made me very pleased indeed. A stretched version can be seen below. Note this has not had a flat nor a dark applied. Actually I need to fix my large flat field from the 16" that has not worked for some time. It shows some trailing as I had not done the next polar alignment adjustment and I did not guide.
After the initial polar alignment through TPoint, the ability to image at 2.5m has become easier. Rather than trailing after 1 minute I can now image for 5 minutes with minimal trailing. So now I had my image the next thing was to attempt another TPoint 22 piece model to see what the polar alignment looked like after the first adjustment. Well this time after pushing the dome around for 30mins or so, only the Azimuth needed correcting. The first time it was about 10 arc minutes, this time only 6 in the same direction. However the Altitude did not need adjusting after the 10 acrminutes adjustment on the first run. I made the adjustments just as the clouds rolled in for a final time before tomorrows rain. Again more rain after some 4 months of downpours! Well it is the wettest Winter in over 250 years......
So off to be, well in fact writing this and it is now 3:25am. I;ll quickly look at the image of M81 then go to bed as I have jut finessed my glass of wine :-)
TARGET : None
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DATE - 25th February 2014
START : 19:28 WEATHER : Out 5.1 DEG C - In 10.0 DEG C
FINISH : 23:08 WEATHER : Out 4.8 DEG C - In 8.1 DEG C
UPDATE - First light for OS RiDK 12" and QSI 683. Rough polar alignment using the base and got focus with the OTA and camera. Camera was set to -30 deg c below ambient at 70%. Plagued with clouds early on.
TARGET : None
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DATE - 27th January 2014
UPDATE - Image Processing Tip
So after having a half bottle of wine down the local pub with my good friends Bob and John, I troubled John with a problem I had around applying darks to my images within PixInsight. Now of course John new the answer, even after half a bottle of wine :-)
PROBLEM :
When applying Darks to a Light frame you introduce Hot Pixels as seen below in the Left hand image. The Right hand image is what it should look like.
CAUSE :
The Optimize feature within the Master Dark section of the ImageIntegration Process is Checked (by default)
FIX :
Uncheck the Optimize Checkbox as seen here
TARGET :
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DATE - 28th-29th April 2014
START : 21:xx WEATHER : Out 1.x DEG C - In 6.x DEG C - Rel/Humidity - x%
FINISH : 00:xx WEATHER : Out 1.x DEG C - In 3.x DEG C - Rel/Humidity - x%
UPDATE -
TARGET :
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