IMAGES ACQUIRED
NIGHTLY JOURNAL
DATE 27th December 2017
START : 17:01 WEATHER : Out 1.5 DEG C - 71 % Rel/Humidity - Moon 64% Waxing
FINISH : 23:14 WEATHER : Out 0.8 DEG C - 79 % Res/Humidity
Day after Boxing day so I was pleased the weather finally cleared. Feels like the first year for a while where I could not go out on Christmas Day. I managed to put the ZWO back on with no problems at all and the focus point was around 38,000 before I removed it and now sits around 47,000. I spent the evening up and down the garden as normal (it will be nice to move house and have the dome just outside and a rotating one too) with an hour or so at a time at the dome with 30mins inside to keep warm.
I ran out of hard disk space on the ASUS laptop very quickly as I had a lot of other video footage on it from Tenerife and the past few times I have been out here. I plugged in to the Sky router by ethernet and transferred the first 130GB to the mac mini. Later I transferred another 89GB and then left the final video images on the ASUS laptop. I now need to process and see if I can get better results than last time. The seeing seemed better this evening. I took a set of video for each object in the .SER lossless standard. I can import this to AS3. I also made sure for each lunar 100 object I took both full frame 5,000 frames and a region of interest, ROI of 1024 x 768 of 5,000 frames. I took one of the Lunar 100 objects at 10,000 frames to see if this was better at the ROI. I was getting 20fps at full resolution and 40-55 fps at ROI. I found the Atlun Mac Moon atlas was invaluable as was the Lunar 100 table on my website and the gridded picture too.
TARGET :
Moon Lunar 100
L5
L19 Alpine Valley - box 11
L23 Pico Mons - box 10
L26 Mare Frigoris - box 4
L28
L47
L51
L61
L67
L69
L74
L75
L76 W. Bond - box 4
L
L83 Plato Craterlets - box 10
NEXT SESSION:
Polemaster again
-------------------------
DATE 15th December 2017
START : 21:00 WEATHER : Out 3 DEG C - 71 % Rel/Humidity - Moon 4% Waining
FINISH : 23:40 WEATHER : Out 2 DEG C - 77 % Res/Humidity
So I was delighted tonight to have my friend Alan Lorrain come over and brig his beautiful 24mm hand grenade style eyepiece with it's 100 degree field of view. We placed it on the back of the 12" and got focused after removing the ZWO that I have been using on the Moon and will use again from 22nd December. We slewed around the sky for a couple of hours after getting the eyepiece focused. Each time the object was just off the field of view, so I must check my polar alignment again. We had the pleasure of my daughters company Ezri, with her friends Dana and Amy who looked at some of the objects with us.We looked at Uranus which was definitely blue and small (wide field eyepiece and no barlow). We took a look at M42 which looked great. M33 was too faint as the clarity of the sky was not great. M1 which Alan and I looked at was there but only if you moved the scope back and forth and used averted vision. M37 the open cluster was lovely as was M45 the Pleiades. We took a look at a few really small open NGC open clusters in the Milky Way. We tried to find 3200 Phealon the asteroid to no success. I need to get the astroids imported into the Sky. Overall a lovely evening with pleasant company and what the observatory was originally built for.
TARGET :
Visual targets
NEXT SESSION:
Focus on ME
Polemaster and Point plus setup guider on 5"
-------------------------
DATE 9th December 2017
START : 05:00 WEATHER : Out -1 DEG C - 77 % Rel/Humidity - Moon 61% Waining
FINISH : 07:00 WEATHER : Out DEG C - % Res/Humidity
Lunar 100
Lunar 27 Archimedes - box 18
Lunar 79 Sinus Aestuum - box 26
Lunar 61 Mosting A - box 34
TARGET :
Lunar 100
NEXT SESSION:
Focus on ME
Polemaster and Point plus setup guider on 5"
-------------------------
DATE 25th/26th November 2017
START : 19:07 WEATHER : Out 1.2 DEG C - 80 % Rel/Humidity - Moon 42% Waxing and sets at 23:09
FINISH : 0 WEATHER : Out DEG C - % Res/Humidity
Imaging M33 with the Canon DSLR 600D on the 12".
TARGET :
Bubble Nebula NGC 7635
NEXT SESSION:
Focus on ME
Polemaster and Point plus setup guider on 5"
-------------------------
DATE 27th October 2017
START : 09:30 WEATHER : Out 7.2 DEG C - 79 % Rel/Humidity - No Moon
FINISH : 03:44 WEATHER : Out 6.6 DEG C - 93% Res/Humidity
So I put the Canon 600D together with the TEC cooler and placed it on the back of the RiDK. I then used the Polemaster to redo the polar alignment. I ran through this twice to make sure it was spot on. I then spent time imaging the Bubble Nebula. In hindsight I could have done with spending time getting the automated focusing working. Also I could have refocused half way through and sorted out the battery supply. I need to make a change to the TEC cooler bottom panel so I can get the battery replaced without taking the whole TEC cooler off.
Anyway, I had a fun night that after a long week at work showed me how much it was to be back out under the stars taking images. Mil Dave kept me company with banter on WhatsApp too.
TARGET :
Bubble Nebula NGC 7635
NEXT SESSION:
Focus on ME
Polemaster and Point plus setup guider on 5"
-------------------------
DATE :10th September 2017
START : 00:10 WEATHER : Out 12.2 DEG C - 75 % Rel/Humidity - Moon 84% waxing - 28deg
FINISH : 03:07 WEATHER : Out 10.8 DEG C - 84% Res/Humidity
Alan Lorrain's birthday party tonight so just got in. Decided to try the TEC cooler again and also attempt to get a better focus.
What I have found is the TEC cooler working well, at 13deg c ambient air temp the sensor is getting to 17deg c on 1min exposure and 22deg c on 2min and 3min exposure.
The MEII is off both for slewing to the object and tracing more than 1min causes star trails. I need to run the pole master again and improve. I also need to balance the scope.
By using the EOS utility I found I could focus.
I took some images of M34 and then M15 to see how the camera performs on the scope but only 1min exposures due to the trailing.
TARGET :
M34 and M15 Canon 600D 1min Tests
NEXT SESSION:
Focus on ME
Polemaster and Point plus setup guider on 5"
-------------------------
DATE : 1st-2nd September 2017
START : 23:55 WEATHER : Out 12.2 DEG C - 69 % Rel/Humidity - Moon 82% waxing - +8deg
FINISH : 02:41 WEATHER : Out 12.4 DEG C - 71 % Res/Humidity
Friday night and the clouds are coming and going so as Brendan says, "mug holes". Given I go to Tenerife shortly for my Winter trip, I thought I would do some final testing of the 600D on the back of the 12" with the TEC cooler. So the clouds did keep hanging around, however I managed to take a few focus shots. The problem seemes to be focus in the resulting images. I need a good nights seeing and no clouds and plenty of hours to give it a good shake down. So off to bed now as I have an 8:30am call with India tomorrow :-(
TARGET :
None
NEXT SESSION:
Focus on ME
-------------------------
DATE : 25-26th August 2017
START : 22:35: WEATHER : Out 16 DEG C - In xx DEG C - xx % Rel/Humidity - Moon -0
FINISH : 04: WEATHER : Out 8.8 DEG C
So I have fitted the thermal sheeting in addition to the Hello Kitty cool bag round the camera to help cool it down. I have added the front brass plate also. Tonights tests are to see what temperature I can get the setup down to and what temperature I get the sensor to. I am taking another set of 40 images. Outside Air temp at the start is 16 deg c. The camera TEC is set to 6 deg c but hovering around 7.1 deg c. The heatsink is at 31 deg c.
TARGET :
None
NEXT SESSION:
Focus on ME
-------------------------
DATE :24th August 2017
START : 21:11 WEATHER : Out 19 DEG C
FINISH : 22:15 WEATHER :
UPDATE :
More testing of the TEC cooler. I have added a Hello Kitty cooler bag around the camera and an ice pack. I decided to test inside the conservatory with the doors open. Temperature of the air was 19 deg c. TEC Cooler set to 8deg maintaining 8.7 deg c, heatsink at a warm 33 deg c.
RESULTS -
With an air temperature of 19 I managed to keep the sensor at 25 deg c by the 18th image. This was taking the usual 2min images with 10seconds interval. The air temp was some 7 deg c higher than the previous test with 1 fan so the addition of the cooler bag and ice did a great job of keeping the sensor cold. It was actually 6 deg above ambient air temp which was the lowest yet achieved.
TARGET :
None
NEXT SESSION:
More TEC testing and need to focus on ME
-------------------------
DATE :19-20th August 2017
START : 21:00: WEATHER : Out 12 DEG C - In 14 DEG C - 71 % Rel/Humidity - Moon -0
FINISH : 04:06 WEATHER : Out 8.8 DEG C x In 11.1 DEG C - 91 % Rel/Humidity
UPDATE :
Testing the Astrotrac guiding at the first part of the evening with Bob now he has ordered the back to back connector. This has solved the problem with the Astrotrac. I now can guid albeit a bit of a large guiding error. I also got the new TEC running. Test results were good and below the key 25deg c noise threshold. 2 fans really helped so I will fig up the other fan. I have also ordered thermal sheeting to get rid of the gap between the cooper and the camera back.
TARGET :
None
NEXT SESSION:
More TEC testing and need to focus on ME
-------------------------
DATE : 24th June - 1st July 2017
UPDATE : Tenerife June Holiday.
JUNE/JULY
AT Problems
Hi All,
So here is an update for you. I have successfully proved guiding works with the same laptop, PHD2, Lodestar guider, 50mm lens and the Lodestar guide cable with my Paramount MEII. It just works. If I replace the ME II with the Astrotrac it does not work, not even on manual.
So I have now (well my good friend Bob) made up a cable with a rocker switch to prove the port on the Astrotrack works, the switch is based on the wiring diagram given to me by Jim Waters from the Astrotrac forum. This allows you to use the RA- and RA+ to effectively make the AT mount run at half speed and 1.5x speed. This works! So the port is good on the Astrotrac.
We then (my friend Bob again) made up a cable that plugs into the Lodestar cable ST-4 end (remember the Lodestar has a proprietory flat 5 pin connector on the camera, and this new cable plugs into the AT.
Saturday - First night stayed down cloudy
Sunday - Night 0 - Test night left 4:43
We arrived up the mountain early as dinner at the Oritava hotel starts at 6:30. We had some trouble getting in the gate to the observatory as I had parked the front of the bollard sensors which stopped it from raising. Once we realised I moved the car and we got in.
We collected JBS from the residencia and then I walked up to the MONS. The location is ideal even if the weather conspired against us with a huge amount of dust, callima, and cloud. I setup on the patio and set the ZWO up to take a time lapse video. It transpired placing directly on the ground was the best thing and tipping slightly to one side so that I could pick up our activity as well as the sky.
Most of the night was spent sitting waiting for a gap in the clouds, but eventually I managed to polar align my Astrotrac and get 7min test images with very little in the way of trailing, at 10mins it was very noticeable. The AT weighted bar is an excellent edition to the mount and allows you to move the camera around with ease. The main challenge is the camera itself is top heavy so I need to attach a longer losmandy adjustable plate for the next trip to balance.
I attempted to get autoguiding working, however I was scuppered by PHD2 not moving the star even on manual mode. I then downloaded the latest version of code, 2.6.3 and then it would not connect to the camera. It turned out, after a couple of forum entires to AT and PHD that this was a known issues he morning I downloaded the fixed code in terms of version 2.6.3 Dev Release 6. I will try again this evening. We packed up and left the observatory at 4:43. It takes 1 hour to get from Puerto De La Cruz to the observatory and 50mins to get down.
So 2 nights in and nothing much to show so far.
Night Monday
So the weather was still poor and the dust very high tonight. readings from the SONG dust monitor was 0.020 parts per m3. We spent a god portion of the night learning how to slew the MONS 20” and I put the ZWO on it to image Saturn. We also imaged Jupiter with JBS’s camera although that was not hugely successful. Tomorrow we will try the ZWO on it instead.
The chief scientist for the TMT was up with his family and an ex IAC director too. We did some visual thought the MONS looking at Jupiter and the Moon only due to high dust and still a lot of cloud. I took an image of the Moon with my iPhone.
We also tried the Canon 600D on the back and took some images of the centre of the Lagoon. I noted the drift in RA was quite pronounced and that the resulting pictures we trailed at 30s.
I still failed to get auto guiding working so I will try again another night.
Night Tuesday
So the night the weather has started to improve a little with more gaps in the cloud but still a very heavy covering of dust at 0.020 parts per m3. The ZWO went on tonight and we imaged Jupiter and various craters on the Moon. I spent most of my time helping JBS move the MONS and point at various objects for him. We could have done with more time looking at the night sky with the MONS overall. We did manage to get the first spectra from the telescope tonight which was good.
First spectra on the Mons. Alpha CrB a spectral class A star. Result. Well done JBS plus that well known star finder DSW!
——————————————
Night Wednesday - 200mm (really clear tonight )
BEFORE 12am
Omega Centauri - Centaurus - DONE
Centaurus A - Centaurus - DONE
Owl Nebula - DONE
Antares and horse nebula 40mm - DONE
BEFORE 2am
M94 in Canes Venatici - DONE
AFTER 4am
Heart and Soul - DONE
ALL NIGHT
NGC 6820/6823 Emission Nebula Vulpecula - DONE
——————————————————————
Night Thursday - 200mm (really clear tonight)
Darks
2min ISO 100
2min ISO 800
BEFORE 12am
Omega Centauri (1hr) - 300mm ISO 100 - DONE
Centaurus A (30min) - 300mm ISO 100 - DONE
Lagoon & Trifid (1hr) - 300mm ISO 800 - DONE
Around 3am
Abell 2151 ( focus on NGC 6040) - Hercules
IC4592 Blue Horsehead Nebula - 300mm ISO 800 - DONE
NGC 7862 & NGC 7762 & LBN 581 Emission Nebula and cluster in Cepheus - 300mm ISO 800 - DONE
B72 Snake Nebula - 300mm ISO 800 - DONE
AFTER 5am
Pleiades - 300mm ISO 800 - DONE - - 300mm ISO 800 - DONE (test only redo in Sept)
ALL NIGHT
Collinder 399 coathanger - Vupecula - 300mm ISO 800 - DONE
———————————————
NOT DONE
IC 4685 emission nebula near Lagoon
BEFORE 12am
Markarians Chain entered on M100
Markarians Chain entered on M60
Markarians Chain entered on M88
BEFORE 2am
Galaxy clusters below and around Ursa Major
3 panel Mosaic of saucepan in Ursa Major
SH2-1 Bright nebula Scorpios
Antares region centred - 2 hrs - 24mm
ALL NIGHT
50mm
ALL NIGHT
Lacerta -
Cygnus -
Capricorn (M30) - (check)
Microscopium - (check)
Scutum - (check)
Antares region placed in top corner so I capture star cloud and cats paw in opposite corner -
Antares region mosaic
Milky Way mosaic
START 4am
Indus
START 4:30am
Grus
Antares / Rho Orphiuchus Region and the Horse dark nebula in the Milky Way
————————————————————
DATE :10th-11th May 2017
START : 21:57: WEATHER : Out 9.5 DEG C - In 13.4 DEG C - 48 % Rel/Humidity - Moon - 99.82% Waxing Alt +13 deg
FINISH : 00:38 WEATHER : Out 8.6 DEG C x In 11.8 DEG C - 70 % Rel/Humidity
UPDATE :
TARGET :
Jupiter - DSLR and ZWO on 12"
NEXT SESSION:
start Lunar 100, more Jupiter and test again the Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro from Ian
-------------------------
DATE :7th-8th May 2017
START : 21:30: WEATHER : Out x DEG C - In xxx DEG C - xx % Rel/Humidity - Moon - 92% Waxing Alt +31 deg
FINISH : 00:38 WEATHER : Out 8.6 DEG C x In 11.8 DEG C - 70 % Rel/Humidity
UPDATE :
Slewed straight to Jupiter this evening and it was dead centre in the middle of the small ZWO chip :-)
Took photo of Moon and Jupiter hanging below it on the 650D with 200mm lens
Took some AVIs of Jupiter with Sharp Cap. It was only connecting at USB 2.0 for some reason later on, first thing it was find. I then took some on my Windows laptop. Then I took some of the Moon. I have now found my Lunar 100 map that was filed away on an external drive. I have placed it in the BAS folder under documents on the Macbook Pro. now I need to process the images.
TARGET :
Jupiter and Moon - DSLR and ZWO on 12"
NEXT SESSION:
start Lunar 100, more Jupiter and test again the Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro from Ian
-------------------------
DATE : 22nd-23rd April 2017
START : 21:30: WEATHER : Out x DEG C - In xxx DEG C - xx % Rel/Humidity - Moon - xx% Waxing Alt +xx deg
FINISH : 00:44 WEATHER : Out 5.0 DEG C x In xxx DEG C - xx % Rel/Humidity
UPDATE :
Over to Bob's this evening to try once again the HEQ5 Pro from Ian and using the Pole Master and then guiding. It took a while to setup but eventually we got the Pole Master working and the longest piece was to setup guiding. Still not sure why it is taking so long to train the guider it seems to go off on 30+ steps and often miss steps where it does not seem to move.
Took 5 x 2min exposures whilst guiding. The guider graph looked terrible compared to my MEII however the resulting images are trail free which is great. I do not think I need to expose for any longer. I may try 3 or 5 mins just to see given the other night 3mins without guiding was a problem.
TARGET :
None
NEXT SESSION:
None
-------------------------
DATE : 15th April 2017
START : 19:30: WEATHER : Out x DEG C - In 12.4 DEG C - xx % Rel/Humidity - Moon - xx% Waxing Alt +xx deg
FINISH : 23:59 WEATHER : Out 5.0 DEG C x In 13.1 DEG C - xx % Rel/Humidity
UPDATE :
this evening Bob came over to take a look at the ME and measure up for a replacement plate for a Polemaster plate that a Bob will make for me. We then spent a few hours getting the Polemaster working on the Mac and the HEQ5 Pro. Some success in that we got excellent polar alignment but only managed to get 2min on the camera as the mount seems to jump and you land up with trailing but with a ball at each end of the trail.
TARGET :
None
NEXT SESSION:
None
-------------------------
DATE : 7th April 2017
START : 19:30: WEATHER : Out 8.4 DEG C - In 12.4 DEG C - 33 % Rel/Humidity - Moon - 89% Waxing Alt +50 deg
FINISH : 22:23 WEATHER : Out 8.4 DEG C x In 13.1 DEG C - 66 % Rel/Humidity
UPDATE :
Out testing ZWO once. Took 3 more videos to test. Seeing better than yesterday again. Also tried to get thye autoguiding working on the HEQ5 Pro from Ian but my C mount lens is rubbish. I will ask John Murphy if I can borrow his to test.
TARGET :
Moon
NEXT SESSION:
Moon
-------------------------
DATE : 6th April 2017
START : 20:30: WEATHER : Out 8.4 DEG C - In 13.1 DEG C - 64 % Rel/Humidity - Moon - 81% Waxing Alt +50 deg
FINISH : 21:39 WEATHER : Out 8.4 DEG C x In 13.1 DEG C -63 Rel/Humidity
UPDATE :
Out testing ZWO again as the seeing is slightly better. I managed to get better focus and this evening took various 3min videos from full frame to 320x240 to see what the difference in frame rate makes. I left the dome open and scope cooling down for 3 hours before i started. I also decided to test the EQ5 Pro from Ian but my camera batteries were flat from the Messier Marathon and the power supply I have is broken and needs fixing.
TARGET :
Moon
NEXT SESSION:
Moon
-------------------------
DATE :4th April 2017
UPDATE :
Testing out the ZWO ASI290MC tonight on 12" RiDK at prime focus. I have tried at 4x with Televue but the seeing is not good enough.
TARGET :
Moon
NEXT SESSION:
Moon
-------------------------
DATE : 25th-2tht March 2017
START : 18:00: WEATHER : Out 16 DEG C
FINISH : 05:00 WEATHER : Out 6.0 DEG C
UPDATE :
MESSIER MARATHON AT CLIDDESDEN SCHOOL
TARGET :
M
NEXT SESSION:
M
-------------------------
DATE : 20th-21st January 2017
START : 17:00: WEATHER : Out 1.1 DEG C - In 3.1 DEG C - nn % Rel/Humidity - Moon - 40% Waining Alt -45 deg
FINISH : nn:nn WEATHER : Out -n.n DEG C x In n.n DEG C -nn Rel/Humidity
UPDATE :
It's a Friday evening and it's clear!! So the plan is to take the Blue frames for NGC 7331 this evening and there lock on and blast through M81 luminance for as long as the Sun is down.
I once again for this galaxy slewed to GSC 2743:2421 and then jogged the scope up one or twice.
Forgot to turn the fan off from cooling down the mirror and the dome was pretty much over the scope so I need to discard the first 5 images!
So finished NGC 7331 at 8:30pm as it's now at +30deg Alt which makes it difficult to focus the blue channel. I have now moved on to M81 which is much higher at +50deg alt and rising. What's nice this evening on another day when the frost still has not cleared in the garden is that I have a roaring fire and a glass of red wine, sitting with the family watching Jason Bourne :-)
Slew to target - Y
Focus run on clear - Y
Confirm guide star - Y
Take 60s confirmation image - Y
Turn off mirror cooling fan - Y
Start image run - Y
Flats - Clear/RGB -
Darks -
Bias -
Focus - Blue
- 37,977 @ 18:30 & MEII Ambient Temp 4.7
- 36,265 @ 20:00 & MEII Ambient Temp 3.3
Focus - Clear
- 36,120 @ 20:30 & MEII Ambient Temp 3.1
- 36,120 @ 00:00 & MEII Ambient Temp 2.3
- 38,190 @ 00:30 & MEII Ambient Temp 2.5
TARGET :
NGC 7331 - Blue 13 x 300 - 6:30pm
M81 Galaxy - L 54 x 600 ? - 8pm?
NEXT SESSION:
NGC 7331 before 11pm (Blue)
M81 Galaxy - Anytime (Luminance)
M101 Galaxy (RGB) - After Midnight
then
NGC 2903 - After 1am
M43 - After Midnight
-------------------------
DATE : 2nd-3rd January 2017
START : 19:25 WEATHER : Out 0.0 DEG C - In 0.2 DEG C - 86 % Rel/Humidity - Moon - xx% Waining Alt xx deg
FINISH : 04:42 WEATHER : Out -3.5 DEG C x In ? DEG C -91 Rel/Humidity
UPDATE :
Went out earlier to try and grab the comet 45P/Honda. I took the portable rig (600D and iOptron tracker) up to Wooton St Lawrence and the hill before you get down to the B3400. Nice low horizons.
Now out imaging NGC 7331. I have gathered 10 frames in Green and the seeing is very good. I've now moved to the Flame nebula to grab some Green and Blue frames.
It's now 1pm and I'm about to start taking M81 Blue frames. I'm delighted to write that I am on Skype with Mil Dave, John Murphy, JBS and Paul Carbelli. Ian Piper was out earlier and has now retired for the evening whilst Tim Powell is not on Skype but on email and out imaging too. I then took some luminance at 10mins however after the first 1 or 2 I think the focus shifted. I will review tomorrow. Meanwhile I decided to grab a few frames of M3 for a test before I go to bed.
Off to bed now, frost on the inside of the dome, frost on the outside of the OTA and on the spider
Slew to target - Y
Focus run on clear - Y
Confirm guide star - Y
Take 60s confirmation image - Y
Start image run - Y
Flats - Clear/RGB - Y
Darks - 600s x 8, 300s x 12, 180s x 3 - Y
Bias - N
Focus - Green
- 36,927 @ 19:30 & MEII Ambient Temp
TARGET :
NGC 7331 Galaxy - 10 x 5mins Green
Flame Nebula - 12 x 5mins Green
Flame Nebula - 12 x 5mins Blue
M81 Galaxy - 10 x 5mins Blue
M81 Galaxy - 7 x 10mins L (focus???)
M3 Glob - 3 x 5mins L
M3 Glob - 3 x 3mins RGB
NEXT SESSION:
NGC 7331 before 11pm (Blue)
M81 Galaxy - Anytime (Luminance)
M101 Galaxy (RGB)
then
NGC 2903 - After 1am
M43 - After Midnight
-------------------------