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DATE - 30th-31st December 2013
START : 19:02 WEATHER : Out 5.8 DEG C - In 10.2 DEG C
FINISH : 00:xxWEATHER : Out xx.1 DEG C - In xx.1 DEG C
UPDATE - Out imaging
TARGET :
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DATE - 28th-29th December 2013
START : 21:02 WEATHER : Out 1.7 DEG C - In 6.4 DEG C
FINISH : 00:53 WEATHER : Out 1.1 DEG C - In 3.1 DEG C
UPDATE - Placed the Canon 600D with the 18-55mm lens mounted on top of the OS RiDK 305. Set to 18mm and stopped down to f3.5.
Imaging various parts of the sky to test.
Took 30mins of data for M42 at 55mm, I found that 18mm I could see the end of the OS RiDK 305 and the dome. I took 30sec subs.
I then took various images for Cassiopeia. I made a mosaic in TheSkyX, which was very easy and worked unlike TheSky6. I then took 4 x 30s for each frame. It will be interesting to see what it looks like. I also took some other single test shots.
Darks - integrated into the photos
TARGET : M42 and Cassiopeia
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DATE - 22nd December 2013
START : 20:57 WEATHER : Out 3.6 DEG C - In 11.0 DEG C (heating on)
FINISH : 23:11 WEATHER : Out 3.4 DEG C - In 11.0 DEG C (heating on)
UPDATE - Decided to go out and perform further testing with the iOptron Skytracker with the 600D. I setup on top of the large table outside the dome and took 30sec exposures of M45 Pleiades. I used 200mm lens then changed to 100mm. I noticed the stars distinctly flar to the left on this lens. I will try the kit lens 18-55mm next time. I also had some trailing and eventually as I was packing up realised the 2 thumb screws on the Tracker were loose.
I'm still waiting for the adapter for the QSI to FLI from OS.
I then took some time to connect the Lakeside Focuser to the laptop for the first time since rebuilding. I am struggling to get it connected to TheSkyX. It just hangs. Downloaded FocusMax and that worked. Noticed that the Lakeside Focuser 2 is the one that worked rather than the the Lakeside Focuser. There were 2 drivers that I installed. HOwever the ASCOM diagnostics do not let me connect to the focuser as it complains about the COM driver being 32bit and the driver 64bit.
I'll reboot and see if that fixes things then I'll call it a night as it's now foggy.
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DATE - 15th December 2013
UPDATE - So one of my best astronomy friends Bob (he fixes everything and to fix things in my house is now known as Bobbish!) has helped me install the MEII and RiDK 305 with the help of my Dad into the observatory after tapping the holes on the base plate for me. I have now positioned the OTA near the front of the Versa-Plate to allow 3 of the thrust screws to connect with the dovetail plate. This means I needed some extra weights at the rear to assist with balancing. I have used a losmandy plate I had for the previous 16" OTA, drilled some holes and fixed some weights to the top. I have also had to add further weights to the counterweight shaft as this was then too light. However I need some more weights from Bob and he has agreed to make me an extension bar of 4" to add further weights to.
The SkyX has been installed and I can now connect to the MEII. I have also successfully connected to the QSI camera (although not installed yet as I am waiting for Gino from OS to ship me the new adapter. I have also connected to the FLI focuser which needed me to install the Daily Build from the Software Bisque website. I did this and installed ASCOM (although I did not use it) as the FLI focuser them appeared in the list to choose from. However it did not work or let me connect (error 225 no focuser has been chosen or words to that effect) because I needed to go to the Telescope menu then Telescope Setup then select Focuser from the left then Focuser Setup on the right then Settings and make sure the focuser flifoc0 in my case was selected. It then worked.
Next things to do are balance the scope some more then get some power cables fed through the mount for the focuser and the camera.
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DATE - 8th December 2013
UPDATE - So where did the year go! In the past 3 months I have been very busy in my new job, that coupled with decorating both of my childrens bedroom has left me little time for Astronomy. However, I have been able to finally upgrade my setup :-) 2 weeks ago I drove to Kent with Bob and John and purchased an Officina Stellare RiDK 305 from Ian King. This is a fantastic carbon fibre open truss corrected dalkirkham astrograph. It is f7.9 and has a mirrior to die for. The spot size across the full width of a 35mm chip never goes outside the airy disk, so it should preduce the best results I can manage from my location. I also purchased a QSI 683 8 filter position camera as well as a Paramount MEII which came in the post 2 days ago :-) The OTA came with the FLI Atlas focuser, apparently the best focuser on the market. Zero tilt and zero shift. Finally I purchased the iOptron Tracker for the DSLR as a portable rig. I have borrowed from Bob the Bembo tripod and the manfrotto head which he has kindly lent.
So when does it get installed? Well we were going to do that today however the 4 threaded bolts that hold the ME to the pier plate are of an American thread 3/8th 24 TPF or such and we have had to order the right tap for the holes we will drill, another 3 days of waiting........
I'm also waiting for the camera to ota adapter from Gino at OS in Italy as well as various PSUs, manuals, colimation keys and manual control for the heaters and fans on the ota!
So once installed I'll update the journal with some nice pictures.
I also went out a few days ago with the DSLR Canon 600D on the iOptron Tracker and took a small mix of exposures to test. I found focus a bit harder than I thoguh but once I had focused it was good. I also dewed up pretty badly another night. I will need some due heater tape, well that gives me something to buy from Astrofest in Feb.
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DATE - 25th August 2013
UPDATE - So I continue to challenge myself with processing Sharpless 8 known as the Cat's Paw Nebula or NGC6334 in Scorpius. Below is a stacked Ha image with Flats and Darks applied and a simple nonlinear stretch applied in PixInsight.
And here is the RGB image stacked and a nonlinear stretch applied but no other processing
Note that I am still in the process of processing the final images. I plan to have an Ha image and and LRGB using the Ha as the Luminance. So far I have managed to get rid of a satellite trail in the RGB image by using the process described by Gerald Wechselberger at this link
http://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=3168
There is a colour cast apparent on the RGB image I need to deal with and a line out on the CCD in the Ha image. Once I have dealt with both of these I can then combine.
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DATE - Friday 5th July - Friday 12th July
UPDATE - La Palma Trip
Two Johns, one Bob and a Dave pack their 100KG of luggage into two cars and head off to Gatwick airport to head off for 1 week of imaging in La Palma, in the Canary Islands. At 8,000ft above sea level and purportedly the second best observing site in the world, La Palmas climate is warm and pleasant.
<updating.......>
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DATE - 11th-12th May 2013
START : 23:43 WEATHER : Out 4.9 DEG C - In 8.0 DEG C
FINISH : 02:03 WEATHER : Out 4.9 DEG C - In 7.9 DEG C
UPDATE - Brendan suggested imaging all the NGC objects in Lyra after we had a conversation about getting back out to the scope and a project for the imaging group. So in preparation for this I thought I would take the opportunity tonight to come out and take a few sample images.
I have setup the data wizard on the Sky 6 to show all the NGC objects in Lyra. Note that right now the first few objects come up above the trees at about 11pm.
Tonight I will start with an LRGB of NGC 6606 which is up first. I will take 4 frames for each channel and at 5mins each.
I have just completed Luminance imaging at 00:44. I have now refocused and started to image R at 00:47. Finished R at 01:02. Started G at the same focus position at 01:04. Finished G at 01:18. Started B at 1:25. Finished B at 01:38. I will now take Flats, set the darks running and go to bed. I'll also creep past Fluffy who is asleep in the girls play house as I let her back in 2 days ago, I think we will keep her and move her with us :-)
FLAT DARKS - N/A
DARKS - N/A
FLATS - DONE
TARGET : NGC 6606 (LRGB - 4 x 5min Luminance and 3 x 5min RGB)
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DATE - 20th-21st April 2013
START : 23:54 WEATHER : Out 2.2 DEG C - In 5.2 DEG C
FINISH : 02:52 WEATHER : Out 2.0 DEG C - In 5.2 DEG C
UPDATE - As the Moon is out I thought I would take some images of Asteroids and starfields to test in PixInsight's new Photometry and Astrometry features.
FLAT DARKS - N/A
DARKS - N/A
FLATS - N/A
TARGET : 334 Chicago & another MP
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DATE - 2nd April 2013
START : 20:45 WEATHER : Out 1.7 DEG C - In 7.1 DEG C
FINISH : 22:nn WEATHER : Out nnn DEG C - In nnn DEG C
UPDATE - Out taking more SII frames for SH2-236.
FLAT DARKS -
DARKS -
FLATS - COMPLETE
TARGET : SH2-236 (IC 410) n x 600s SII
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DATE - 1st April 2013
START : 19:34 WEATHER : Out 0.4 DEG C - In 4.4 DEG C
FINISH : 22:38 WEATHER : Out 0.5 DEG C - In 2.4 DEG C
UPDATE - Out taking SII frames for SH2-236. I currently have 5 hours 40min of HA data, 1 hour 20min of OIII and now to get some SII. I will probably try and get some more OIII later.
FLAT DARKS -
DARKS -
FLATS - COMPLETE
TARGET : SH2-236 (IC 410) 8 x 600s SII
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UPDATE : Okay so here is a new version (on the right or below) of the M31 LRGB based on a new tutorial I watched from the PixInsight web site and I think it is hugely better! The image was posted 24th March.
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UPDATE : I have spent many hours using PixInsight over the past few days to try and produce a photo of M31. Below is my first result. I feel the colour could do with a boost but I am not sure how to do this so will enlist the help of John or Tim.
Image is 13 x 600s for each LRGB filter so 8 hours and 40mins total exposure.
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DATE - 13th March 2013
START : 19:39 WEATHER : Out 3.2 DEG C - In 7.5 DEG C
FINISH : 00:04 WEATHER : Out 0.5 DEG C - In 1.9 DEG C
UPDATE - Out taking OIII frames for SH2-236
FLAT DARKS -Taken
DARKS - Taken
FLATS - Taken
TARGET : SH2-236 (IC 410) 8 x 600s OIII
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DATE - 4th-5th March 2013
START : 19:39 WEATHER : Out 3.2 DEG C - In 7.5 DEG C
FINISH : 00:04 WEATHER : Out 0.5 DEG C - In 1.9 DEG C
UPDATE - Out imaging again tonight for another brief spell of fairly clear weather. The day has been lovely, 9 deg c and clear, and best of all I have taken the day off as holiday. Tomorrow is my Grandad's funeral so I will not stay out long. I should imagine the clouds will once again get the best of me before I retire for the evening.
Midnight update - Turned out to be a great night. Nothing went wrong and although there was slight cloud so the seeing was not perfect I managed to get 4 hours of HA data which is excellent! I'll start taking OIII data from the next night out. this may be some time as it is meant to rain for the next week!
FLAT DARKS -Taken
DARKS - Taken
FLATS - Taken
TARGET : SH2-236 (IC 410) 25 x 600s HA
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DATE - 3rd March 2013
START : 19:20 WEATHER : Out 6.3 DEG C - In 2.2 DEG C
FINISH : 23:12 WEATHER : Out nn DEG C - In nn DEG C
UPDATE - A short spell of clear weather has allowed me to image this evening. Just before 11pm the clouds of course rolled in and put an end to the nights viewing.
TARGET : SH2-236 (IC 410) 8 x 600s HA
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DATE - 17th February 2013
START : 21:11 WEATHER : Out 2.2 DEG C - In 5.1 DEG C
FINISH : 21:23 WEATHER : Out 2.6 DEG C - In 4.9 DEG C
UPDATE - Out trying to Image SH240 tonight, found that with the Moon at half the supernova remnant was even more elusive. I have now decided to set out imaging SH 236 a rather bright object also known as IC 410 in Auriga. I have manager to get 2 x 10min HA images only before the clouds rolled in!
In preparation for moving house I am trying to source all the Windows software for Mac OS instead. I plan to have a direct Ethernet to USB connection from my iMac to the new setup. I know that the Sky X will come on the Mac OS X platform and was pleased to find that PHD Guiding also does. I will install this later this evening. It's a shame Maxim DL used by my friends John and Bob have not been ported to the Mac. However I plan to run the Sky X image capturing software that will come with my new Paramount MX mount I am to buy from Ian King later this year.
TARGET : SH2-236 (IC 410) 2 x 600s HA
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DATE - 16th February 2013
UPDATE - I have now now completed the analysis of my imaging for the evening. I took several 100 images and out of them all I managed to get a few without clouds and 1 with the asteroid. I continuously moved the telescope across the predicted track always ahead by some 5-10mins. I then started imaging 40s exposures for 10-15mins before I moved on. The left image below shows the 40s exposure ending at 20:27. The image to the right shows the predicted track (red), the asteroids expected position at 20:27 (red dot) and the actual recorded track (orange).
As can be seen in the right image the actual track of DA14 was slightly off given the TLE input. If I still had the Paramount ME then imaging this would have been much easier. Also the speed of DA14 was much faster than predicted using the TLE as in 40s it covered more of the sky than again was modelled.
Image Details:
- Size, 2 deg x 1.5 deg
- Exposure, 40s
- Time, 20:27:02
- Equipment, Wiliiams Optics 72mm, SBIG ST2000XM CCD
- Pixel Scale, 4.54 arcsec/pixel
- Orientation, 169.03 deg E of N
- (RA, Dec) center (H:M:S, D:M:S):(12:43:50.026, +68:41:9.655) this is to the centre of the image.
TARGET : Asteroid 2012 DA14
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DATE - 16th February 2013
START : 19:09 WEATHER : Out 4.6 DEG C - In 7.7 DEG C
FINISH : 22:37 WEATHER : Out 4.n DEG C - In 7.n DEG C
UPDATE - Out trying to Image SH240 tonight, however it was very cloudy until about 5 mins ago so I gave up.
TARGET : Asteroid 2012 DA14
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DATE - 15th February 2013
START : 19:50 WEATHER : Out 3.3 DEG C - In 6.5 DEG C
FINISH : 21:3n WEATHER : Out 4.n DEG C - In 7.n DEG C
UPDATE - Came out tonight to chase the asteroid. However it was moving pretty fast and there was a lot of cloud about. I managed to get a single image of it streaking across my FOV given the 40s exposure.
TARGET : Asteroid 2012 DA14
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DATE - 14th February 2013
START : 20:22 WEATHER : Out 5.3 DEG C - In 8.6 DEG C
FINISH : 21:30 WEATHER : Out 4.4 DEG C - In 7.6 DEG C
UPDATE - Valentines, setting up for tomorrows asteroid
TARGET : Asteroid 2012 DA14
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DATE - 2nd February 2013
START : 21:55 WEATHER : Out -1.0 DEG C - In 2.0 DEG C
FINISH : 23:47n WEATHER : Out 0.0 DEG C - In 1.7 DEG C
UPDATE - First clear night we have had since the snow and rain tonight. I have setup to image SH 240 in HA. I must make myself a setup list as I made several elementary mistakes this evening; Such as not focusing the camera, especially considering I had dismantled the camera from the OTA recently to weigh it for my trip to La Palma. I also forgot to guide as well as having the guide camera in back to front! The final straw was the realisation that the Ethernet over Power adapter was broken and I had no internet. Aside from that all went rather well.
It's now 22:43 and I have taken the first image and to my astonishment I have made another mistake. I had slewed to Sturve 753 a 7.53 mag star nearby to focus my HA filer on. I then forgot to slew back! I do have a nice star field though....... now to start again.
TARGET : SH 240 (6 x 600s HA)
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DATE - 1st January 2013
START : 19:30 WEATHER : not taken
FINISH : 21:33 WEATHER : Out 2.2 DEG C - In 9.2 DEG C
UPDATE - So I have edited the M27 colour image and reduced the blue whilst increasing the red slightly. Below is the before and after of this using the STF tool within PI 1.8. Is the background now at the correct blackness?
I also went out this evening and decided to setup and work out my projects for 2013. I have decided to try 2 main projects, work on a complete Caldwell catalogue in honour of Sir Patrick Moore and start with a vast project of collecting Sharpless images. Both these will take more than 2013, however I will be interested to see where I am at this time next year ! I also spent time downloading the data for the comet C1/2012 IS (ISOS) which is supposed to brighten to be the best looking comet of all time.......we shall see.
I then went on to see what Caldwell objects were up this evening using the Sky database wizard and that were suitable for my field of view. There were 2 whilst I was out this evening. One of them was the Rosette nebula. I have imaged this before but it could do with being redone. However I decided therefore to choose a Sharpless object. I then went and imaged a few to help choose.
SH 239 - produced no pictrure in Ha after 10 minutes, no picture in Red after 60 seconds, it did pick up a bright star to the edge of the field of view though. I therefore think it would benefit from a larger scope with a smaller field of view.
SH 238 - produced no picture after 60 seconds in Red.
SH 246 - produced no picture after 60 seconds in Red.
2.9 oiut and 9.2 in
SH 241 - produced no picture after 60 seconds in Red and nothing after 60 seconds in Ha.
SH 240 - Did produce an image in Ha after 600 seconds so 10 minutes. This is the object I will go forwards with. Below is the fairly raw image with a small stretch so you can see it.
There are filaments of this very old supernova remnant within this FoV. It will take many hours in Ha to produce a good image so I will start next time I am out. It is also only a small part of this vast remnant.
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