Embedded Files
DATE : 26th-27th December 2009
START : 20:59 WEATHER : 6 DEG C - 70% Humidity
FINISH : 05:03 WEATHER : 4 DEG C - 68% Humidity
UPDATE : A long but very successful night tonight. I managed to grab over 2 hours of data before the meridian flip
occurred. I then grabbed another 3 hours. I hope the final image is worth while. It looks rather large compared to the
Williams photo. I noticed that although the guiding was not bad it could have been better. Some of the issue has to
be with the collimation as that must through the software out slightly. I also think it is either not correcting enough or
too much. I will adjust the settings next time out and see the results. The guiding was slightly erratic in the y axis.
TARGET LIST :
NGC 2264 - Cone / Christmas Tree Nebula (to process)
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DATE : 25th-26th December 2009
START : 18:34
FINISH : 19:20
WEATHER : 2 DEG C - 68% Humidity
UPDATE : Went out to clear my head for a while after much food and festivities. Opened up the dome and tried to get
a piece of the Heart Nebula SH2-190 in the field of view. However, due to mirror flop and a number of other problems
including finally the clouds rolling in and the rain coming down I did not succeed
TARGET LIST :
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DATE : 22nd-23rd December 2009
START : 19:21
FINISH : 21:20
WEATHER : -5 DEG C - 72% Humidity
UPDATE : To cheer me up from crashing my car I decided to remove the snow from the Dome and go out imaging until
the freezing fog sets in. I finally managed to get the autoguiding working. I set the autoguide chip to 2x binning and then
performed another calibrate. This seemed to work and keep the star on the chip for over an hour.
I then took some 5 and 10 min sub frames of SH2-157. Very bright portion of this nebula was placed on my chip. however
the collimation was not great and as I realised at the end of the 30-40 mins of data gathering the 16" had dewed up! First
time for a long while. The was freezing fog settling in and the humidity was very high for this time of year. I do need the dew
shield after all.
I decided instead of getting the hair dryer out I would pack up and go enjoy some wine.
TARGET LIST :
SH2-157
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NGC 488
IC 434 Horse Head NebulaDATE : 12th-13th December 2009
START : 22:34
FINISH : 02:22
WEATHER : 6 DEG C - 62% Humidity
UPDATE : I have decided to place the SBIG CCD back on the 16" for a while as I fancy taking some images of galaxies
and planetary nebula as well as perfecting collimation. Tonight I took a couple of frames of NGC 488 to see how it comes
out. I will then take some more another night. I also took a frame of the Horse Head Nebula (IC 434). It did take me most
of the session to get the camera off the Williams and onto the 16", focus and then sync on a star. Of course I am not
using a TPoint model right now so I slewed from West to East and found the star hard to place in the frame. I finally
managed this and then had huge problems trying to get guiding working. Firstly I forgot to callibrate. Then I remembered
to change the callibration settings from 100 to 45. Then I forgot to recallibrate when I rotated the camera. Then when I
had this working and tried to guide the star would periodically move out the frame. At the end of the night as my IQ
dropped and so did my temperature as it was 4 deg c at this point I decided to call it a night.
TARGET LIST :
NGC 488
IC 434 Horse Head Nebula
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DATE : 20th-21st November 2009
START : 19:38
FINISH : 00:19
WEATHER : 11 DEG C - 62% Humidity
UPDATE : Tonight I was up and running in 5 mins! This shows how easy it is for me to start imaging each evening with
this setup. Tonight I will get another 1.5 hours of data on the 4th and final segment of the Heart Nebula. I can then move
on to new targets. Probably not a mosiac again for a while :-)
TARGET LIST :
SH 190 Heart Nebula Ha A4
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DATE : 17th-18th July 2009
START : 22:00
FINISH : 00:15
WEATHER : 10 DEG C - 63% Humidity
UPDATE : Unfortunatly cloud kept getting in the way tonight so I did not manage to image.
TARGET LIST :
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DATE : 16th-17th November 2009
START : 20:14
FINISH : 00:18
WEATHER : 10 DEG C - 68% Humidity
UPDATE : Managed to get the laptop to work this evening and took 1 hour of SH 190 Heart Nebula tile A4 in the mosaic
TARGET LIST :
SH 190 Heart Nebula Ha A4
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DATE : 15th-6th November 2009
START : 18:34
FINISH : 19:20
WEATHER :
UPDATE : Tried to get new laptop working with Mount and CCD camera, however technical problems stopped me doing
this so I will continue my setup tomorrow night as it is also now cloudy and I could not get Autoguiding working.
TARGET LIST :
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DATE : 20th-21st October 2009
START : 22:09
FINISH : 23:21
WEATHER :
UPDATE : On holiday today away from home. Decided to use the Slooh telescope to take an image. I used the
observatory in the Canary Islands called Teide and took an image of the Butterfly Nebula. I then realised the Moon
was up so that is why it did not come out. So I moved on and took a photo of Neptune. This was very Blue and a
nice shot
TARGET LIST :
Neptune
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DATE : 24th-25th October 2009
START : 21:09
FINISH : 0:21
WEATHER : 13 DEG C - 63% Humidity
UPDATE : Out to image Frame A3 of the SH190 Heart Nebula Mosaic. Took 12 x 10 min. Then tried to take some for
Frame A4 but patchy cloud for a while so decided to go to bed.
TARGET LIST :
SH 190 - Heart Nebula
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DATE : 16th-17th October 2009
START : 21:13
FINISH : 0:18
WEATHER : 8 DEG C - 64% Humidity
UPDATE : Still having problems with the USB connections tonight. I am now direct attached so no hubs. This can only
mean 2 things. Either the OS needs reinstalling or the laptops hardware is at fault. If my memory serves me correctly
then it is the hardware as I have had trouble in the past on this laptop.
Then had lots of problems on getting the mount to go to the right place. No idea why! Gave up and manually pointed then
decided to sync on the star. It may be because I clicked sync on an incorrect star the other night.
Started to image the Heart Nebula Mosiac A3 in Ha. I got 10 min frame and then the clouds rolled in. Another night gone.
TARGET LIST :
SH 190 - Heart Nebula
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DATE : 11th-12th October 2009
START : 21:05
FINISH : 0:50
WEATHER : 11 DEG C - 60% Humidity
UPDATE : Again had problems with the USB Hub tonight. I checked and I was using a noremal 5m cable from the hub
which means I should run into problems, I then went back to the USB active extender and that also gave problems. Then
I remembered I had this before. I will go and buy a new hub and extender tomorrow and retest. In the meanwhile I will
use the Camera and Mount plugged into my Laptop and keep my mouse and filter wheel unplugged.
I decided to image the second frame of the Heart tonight so I am now imaging 10 min exposures in Ha of the A2 mosaic.
I took 10 min exposures, 2 hours worth.
TARGET LIST :
SH 190 - Heart Nebula
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DATE : 8th-9th October 2009
START : 22:15
FINISH : 02:00
WEATHER : 07 DEG C - 68% Humidity
UPDATE : After a messy start with USB devices through the hub dropping out on me I managed to gather 2 hours of data
in SII for the Elephant Nebula. This was to replace the 2 hours of SII data I took before that was out of focus! John M came
round as tonight was after the BAS Practical. I now need to create the Narrow Band image of the Elephant to replace the
poor 1st attempt. I took 12 images of 10 mins exposure. I then did the flats, darks etc. I must also sort out the USB Hub.
TARGET LIST :
IC 1396 - Elephant Trunk
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DATE : 25th-26th September 2009
START : 20:43
FINISH : 06:50
WEATHER : 11 DEG C - 60% Humidity
UPDATE : First time out for a long while once again due to work! Tonight I decided to take some more data for the
Elephants Trunk this time through my new SII filter. I also decided to take Bob's advice that I should ise a Mosaic of
1 to remember where I was in the sky. It took me some time to get back to the original position of the frame. I managed
to get somewhere near however the angle was slightly off. This was obviously because I have had the camera on and off
over the past months.
Below is the Mosiac window and the settings for this object. I will reuse this tonight when I take the OIII data as I will
have to slew back to this position once I have taken flats for the current SII filter.
Well later on I did not use the Mosaic position as I did not take flats. I will do this at the end of the session. I have now
taken just over 1 hour in SII and 1 hour in OIII. John M came over for about 2 hours and keptme company and helped
focus. I would say the OIII is better focused than the SII. However it will do for this image as it is my first.
I have now decided to move on and image SH 190 the Heart Nebula. Although I could have fit most of the nebula in, the
destinct heart shape would have been cut off the corners and sides. As I do not want to rotate my camera I have created
a four pane mosaic in The Sky and will now start imaging A1 through to A4. I will try to take 2 hours of Ha in each image.
I will then stitch together.
Below is the image from The Sky showing the mosiac panes or tiles. The red stripe in the background is the Meridian
Line. As you can see this means I will need to perform a flip shortly. How do I know this?
Well on the Paramount ME there is a feature to interigate the mount and it tells you how many seconds until the soft limit at the
Meridian. Below is a picture of the Window showing 554 seconds left.
Mamaged to get 2 images at 10 mins each and then needed to flip. Took some time to align with the original image as
it was slightly off. Finally started taking my last run of images at 4:01am. I then realised I was still on the Deep Sky
filter rather than the Ha filter. What a nusience. This was because I used the Deep Sky to position the scope over the
mosiac pane. Well, changed this now and imaging again at 4:09am.
Finished imaging 2 hours of Ha on the Heart. I also grabbed 1 x 5 min frame of Ha on M42 just to see what it looked like.
I have now completed all the Flats and Dark Flats. I will leave the computer running taking Darks for the actual images
for about 3 hours. Off to bed :-)
TARGET LIST :
IC 1396 - Elephant Trunk
SH 190 - Heart Nebula (A1)
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DATE : 10th-10th September 2009
START : 21:27
FINISH : 23:32
WEATHER : 14 DEG C - 55% Humidity
UPDATE : Tried to image this faint object again tonight with not much success. I lost my USB connection to everything
so had to reboot just as I wss ready to take my first photo. Then I forgot to change the filter position to Ha, then I lost
the guide star, then I lost the will to live!
TARGET LIST :
SH 140
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DATE : 9th-10th September 2009
START : 22:09
FINISH :
WEATHER : 11 DEG C - 60% Humidity
UPDATE : Decided to go out tonight and setup the filter wheel now that it has been fixed and has a new disc
with new magnets. Looks like it works ok. The program sees 7 filters which is good. Reassembled the wheel
with the SBIG on to the Williams. Spent some time focusing though. Went from Clear filter to the Ha and there
was image movement, although may have been camera movement from the focuser. Took 10 minute exposure
but faint stars are out of focus. Took 2 mins and refocused. Now taking another 10 mins to make sure it is ok.
Sorted out the autoguider. Changed the Callibration distance backfr from 45 to 100 as per the ME manual. Then
ran a new calibration and it completed successfully. Below are the before and after screens for completion.
Autoguider settings for the 16"
here is what I set for the WO 72mm which works a treat.
Took a 20 min image with the Ha filter of SH 140 in Cepheus. I managed to take 2 x 20min exposures then I hit the
meridian so decided to call it a night. Took 19 flats at 1.2 seconds, 19 flat darks and 1 dark at 20 min. I will continue
to image this on the next available night.
TARGET LIST :
SH 140
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DATE : 24th-25th August 2009
START : 22:00
FINISH : 00:21
WEATHER : 14 DEG C - 61% Humidity
UPDATE : Ian came over tonight to try out his QHY8 6MP colour camera on the 16".Had moderate success. Very
pleased with the raw image of the Ring Nebula M57. Fainter stuff was not great as I could only image for 2 mins
before star trailing. We could not guide so we were stuck at 2 mins. Very pleased with the performance though.
TARGET LIST :
M57
M13
Bubble Nebula
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DATE : 22nd-23rd August 2009
START : 21:10
FINISH : 01:45
WEATHER : 16 DEG C - 54% Humidity
UPDATE : BBQ night for BAS. Various objects viewed with patchy cloud through the 16" with my eyepiece.
TARGET LIST :
Jupiter.
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DATE : 21st-22nd August 2009
START : 23:35
FINISH : 01:35
WEATHER : 17 DEG C - 66% Humidity
UPDATE : John came over and we imaged with the WO and through the Ha filter various Sharpless objects. I downloaded
the database from Bisque as I could not find the CDs again! The best was SH 171 which we thought looked like a Wolf!
What I need to do is run a Data search on the database to pick out just the object that are large and bright for the WO and
leave the reast for the 16".
TARGET LIST :
SH 157
SH 171 aka Wolf
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DATE : 19th-20th August 2009
START : 23:20
FINISH : 00:55
WEATHER : 17 DEG C - 66% Humidity
UPDATE : Bob, John and Brendan came over tonight. We decided to take 5 min images for each object and see what we got.
We had a problem with taking more than 5 mins with the Williams as the stars trailed. This was caused in part by the need
to rebalance in RA. The last time I moved the weights was when Bob had his SBIG on the mount. All the images were taken in
Ha as it is currently attached to my scope directly as the filter wheel is broken. The best thing was Jupiter at the end of the night
and I saw the GRS for the first time and 2 transitiing moons.!!!!!! This was the most exciting thing to happen for ages!!!!!
TARGET LIST :
Gamma Cyg Nebula
North American Nebula
Pelican Nebula
Veil Nebula
Bush (our name) Nebula
Jupiter - Visual
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DATE : 15th-16th August 2009
START : 22:36
FINISH : 00:10
WEATHER : 17 DEG C - 66% Humidity
UPDATE : Tonight is the first night out for around 3 weeks due to holiday and the Moon and cloud. I need to sort the autoguide
problem on the WO. However, the first problem tonight is that the filter wheel reports only 6 filters. After some PD I have found
that if I turn the wheel on it's front it reports 7. If I stand vertical or on it's back it reports 6. I have emailed Terry about this. The
clouds have once again rolled in anyway.
TARGET LIST :
IC 1396 - Elephant Trunk
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DATE : 25th-26th July 2009
START : 22:45
FINISH : 01:22
WEATHER : 15 DEG C - 63% Humidity
UPDATE : Thought I would try to get some desent images this evening of the Elephants trunk in Ha after yesterdays issues.
It would seem this evening I am still having tracking problems. I autoguide and even at 10 mins I start to see trailing.
At 15 or 20 mins it is terrible. Not sure what the problem is. Below is a copy of the autoguide screen.
I even went to the effort of recallibrating. I now realise that the Reverse x is to be ticked when I am on the other side of the
Meridian from that which I callibrated. I have unticked this since callibrating near this object. Below is RA and Dec where I
am imaging as I moved the scope to centre the object.
Here is a copy of the guide star to show it is bright enough.
Managed to grab a few frames at 10 mins and then the clouds rolled in. I will have to grab some more soon then get some RGB frames. I also grabbed some Flats. 19 flats at 2 seconds for this Ha filter. I then took 19 Dark Flats. I then took 1 dark at 15 mins for one of the frames and then left the camera running to take 1 hours worth of darks at 10 mins. I took 6 of these.
TARGET LIST :
NGC 1499 Califonia Nebula
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DATE : 24th-25th July 2009
START : 22:04
FINISH : 00:20
WEATHER : 14 DEG C - 62% Humidity
UPDATE : I decided to put the SBIG on the WO tonight. This took a while. I had to find the longer power cable and then focus. I then slewed to the Elephants Trunk and the image was out of focus by alot. This was because the filter wheel added enough weight that the whole camera assembly pulled on the focuser. I then had to download the WO manual and look for the friction screw to tighten. It seemed to be 2mm Allen key however when I tried it turned out to be a 2.5mm key. I tightened then refocused and then started to image. However again another problem cropped up. I had been able to image without autoguiding for about 25 mins. Tonight at both 20 and 15 mins I had trailing stars. I then picked a guide star and started to guide. Of course at this point the clouds rolled in! I packed up and went to bed.
TARGET LIST :
IC 1396 - Elephant Trunk
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DATE : 29th-30th June 2009
START : 23:16
FINISH : 02:00
WEATHER : 18 DEG C - 60% Humidity
UPDATE : I started out by attempting to take an image of Gyulbudaghian's Variable Nebula as suggested by our challenge master, Military Dave. However after messing about with focus due to mirrir flop I took my first image to find that nothing came out. So it ws definatly faint. I decided instead (as the nights are short and light right now) to image NGC 7023 The Iris Nebula, that was close by. I then took 1 hour of data through the Deep Sky filer. Once I have the correct exposures for RGB I will attempt my first colour image. I did find that at one point I lost 3 images as I had written over them with the new images. I'm not sure what happened there.
I then took some flats and left the darks running all night.
TARGET LIST :
NGC 7023 Iris Nebula
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DATE : 24th-25th June 2009
START : 21:05
FINISH : 00:45
WEATHER : 17 DEG C - 50% Humidity
UPDATE : Came out tonight for the first time in a while. I have my new toy which is the Starlight-Xpress 7 position Filter Wheel. This has now been fixed and I placed my filters in and connected up. I am now using a USB hub on the pier as I have too many USB devices for my 2 sockets on the laptop. The filter wheel seems to work well. It took me some time to setup with the right cables and lengths to go under the floor and then to get focus. More time was then spent orienting the camera so it slews left and right in the correct fashion. I then downloaded the G2V database for Sun like stars and the clouds rolled in.....typical! Maybe tomorrow I can get some Sun callibration frames for the filters.
TARGET LIST : NONE
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DATE : 31st-1st June 2009
START : 00:54
FINISH : 03:45
WEATHER : 11 DEG C - MilBars - 62% Humidity
UPDATE : Imaged M51 tonight. Got about 2 hours of data. I will process then decide if I need some more. I also took 100 frames of the Moon and the Apollo 11 landing site for my friend Jimmy who came over earlier. I then took 1 frame of M63 to see what it looked like.
TARGET LIST :
M63 - Sunflower Galaxy
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DATE : 29th-30th May 2009
START : 22:16
FINISH : 03:26
WEATHER : 12 DEG C - MilBars - 40% Humidity
UPDATE : I am out in the dome imaging NGC 4676 The Mice. I require more data.
Currently focusing.
Now I am imaging the Moon and the Apollo 11 landing site whilst I wait for the Mice galaxies to go past the meridian. temp set to 10deg due to frosting.
Now focusing for the Mice.
Now focused and trying to lower the temperature. (Must cook the desecant!)
Now imaging the Mice.
3.5 hours of the Mice.
Took flats and dark flats.
Now parking telescope and setting off darks for the rest of the morning.
TARGET LIST :
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DATE : 24th-25th May 2009
START : 23:34
FINISH : 03:45
WEATHER : 12 DEG C - MilBars - 65% Humidity
UPDATE : Decided to try for the Mice again this evening. My collimation was not perfect but it would do. I grabbed my first frame at 00:11am. I then grabbed another 23 so 2 hours worth. I then found an interesting looking galaxy near by in The Sky. I then imaged 1 hour of the Whale Galaxy. It also has a small satelite galaxy that I need to identify. I took flats and left the darks to run over night.
TARGET LIST :
C32 The Whale Galaxy
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DATE : 23rd-24th May 2009
START : 02:32
FINISH : 04:30
WEATHER : 8 DEG C - MilBars - 65% Humidity
UPDATE : After spending time over at Bob's dome with John I got in just after 2am and decided to venture down to my dome. I imaged 30 mins of NGC 6946 a spiral galaxy in Cygnus. After 30mins the sky had lightened enough to spoil any further images. The time was 3:41 am! I then took a look at Jupiter before taking flats and darks and heading off to bed about 4:30am.
TARGET LIST :
NGC 6946 Spiral Galaxy
Jupiter
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DATE : 20th-21st May 2009
START : 21:00
FINISH : 23:30
WEATHER : 8 DEG C - MilBars - 65% Humidity
UPDATE : Went out to try and image the ISS from the 6" dob. I setup and got a few frames, however it is very difficult to get it on the webcam chip. I tried again later and this time with the 12". This was impossible. I believe I need to do the 400 TPoint run and then turn on the extra features of the mount and then try to capture with the webcam!
TARGET LIST :
ISS
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DATE : 16th-17th May 2009
START : 22:53
FINISH : 01:23
WEATHER : 9 DEG C - MilBars - % Humidity
UPDATE : Imaged the Dwarf Planet Ceres tonight 2 days before opposition. Then went on to image The Mice however after 1 frame the clouds rolled in again!!!!!1
TARGET LIST :
Dwarf Planet - 1 Ceres
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DATE : 5th-6th May 2009
START : 22:34
FINISH : 01:25
WEATHER : 8.4 DEG C - MilBars - 65% Humidity
UPDATE : Went out and took photos of the Moon. This was a great opportunity to get out my Moon map and take a look at what to image. The Moon was 83% full. I first images the Apollo 14 landing site. Next I imaged Clavius, then Copernicus, Rupes Recta, Timorcharis and finally Vallis Alpes. I then took 1 frame of The Mice interacting galaxies to see what it looked like, which in fact was very small even through my scope! at half past 1 I decided to call it a night.
When I did finally manage to process the images I noticed the exposure rate of one hundredth of a second was too short. this produced frames that had a max value of 1800, a far cry from 65000! I then had to take darks, which of course because they were taken on another night meant that some hot pixels were still left. To get around this I enlisted the help of our eminent John Murphy who showed my in CCDStack that I could do the following to remove the hot pixels.
Open the frames and then perform the usual removal of the dark. After this go to the Process menu option and select Data Reject then select Procedures. In the drop down list choose 'Reject Hot/Cold pixels' and you will see the screen below.
Notice the Strength is set to 1.1, this was just right for the Moon frames but can be changed. The same goes for the Upper Limit, I changed to 65550. Next select the Impute Rejected pixels from the drop down and hit Apply to All. This will as John said replace all the Red rejected pixels with an interpolated value. Then save all the images to new directory and open them in Registax :-)
TARGET LIST :
Moon - Copernicus
Moon - Rupes Recta
Moon - Timorcharis
Moon - Vallis Alpes
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DATE : 25th-26th April 2009
START : 22:28
FINISH : 04:53
WEATHER : 6 DEG C - 1010 MilBars - 65% Humidity
UPDATE : Below are documented the accounts of 3 astronomers (Bob, Mil Dave and I) , then 2 (Mil Dave and I) for the night that was meant to be the Messier Marathon..............
Bob and Military Dave came over. We were supposed to be doing a Messier Marathon, however we agreed that tonight we would accept Mil Dave's challenges and search for an illusive Quasar, an exceedingly small galaxy merger and an immensely faint planetary nebula. We set off to the dome and took the usual 10 minutes to setup. Some more time was then used, changing the scope the camera was on and we placed the SBIG on the 16". Focus was a bit more troublesome and just as we were getting to focus the clouds rolled in.
Now it was suppose to be clear all night so we went for a cup of coffee up at the house. On our return, cloud still masking our view of the heavens, Bob setup his camera and took some much needed photos of the dome in its night setting. To aid the effect of the dome at night Bob asked that we (Mil Dave and I) pushed the dome 180 degrees slowly, so that on a time lapse photo the whole of the inside of the dome would be captured. This would create an effect that looked like half the dome was missing. The effect would be quite something. So on we pushed interrupted by the odd muffled sound of Bob advising us that we should speed up, slow down, speed up , slow down....... After the first run we had taken too long and the result was not good. So off we went for another coffee up at the house whilst the clouds continued their ever eastward movement across the sky.
On returning to the dome we setup for another run of moving the dome. This time we (Mil Dave and I) decided to push the dome faster. We completed the 180 degrees in around 10 seconds. More muffled noises from outside told us we were too fast! With one more try left before we all would become disheartened, Bob setup for another exposure and we (Mil Dave and I) started the long push 180 degrees around, but this time at a speed between the previous two. Muffled noises came from outside and we concluded that Bob was happy! A rap on the observatory door and we opened it to let Bob in and view the results. Fantastic. The first all night shots of the Northwood Observatory (aka IMT1 or the Death Star).
At gone midnight, looking up, we noticed some welcomed breaks in the cloud and Bob advised his departure after a long trip back from Ireland earlier in the day. We (Mil Dave and I ) took the opportunity for another coffee (and a much needed comfort break) up at the house. On walking down the garden to the observatory I commented to Mil Dave that we should not forget to take a flat field before we took the camera out to change the filter for out final object later, the sky was indeed clearing and as the clock struck 1am, the nights challenges began (oh and the mouse ran down :-)
First we needed to focus and did so with Mil Dave centring the star whilst the mirror flopped around. Soon the star was sharp and the sky clear. First up for targets of the night (in lieu of Messier objects) was NGC 3808, a galactic merger in Coma Berenices. The hard thing for us to do with this little challenge was not just to bag the galaxies, but to tease out the tails of stars and gas that connect the two. These tails ripped into existence by the massive gravitational eddies caused by the near collision of the 2 galaxies. We (Mil Dave and I) took a few frames and found we could indeed see the two galaxies, however the tails were elusive indeed, at least on a single frame.
With renewed enthusiasm we immediately slewed the scope to our next target, QSO 0957+561, not only a Quasar but a gravitationally lensed one at that, forming 2 images in Ursa Major and near a well know galaxy called NGC 3079. Unobtainable through a small telescope and but a mear 2 points of light through a 16" we started to image. And there is was, light bent round a massive gravitational body between us and the Quasar, 2 points of light! 2 galaxies! What a great image!
More coffee was needed now as the clock struck 2am and we headed off for the house. The next challenge would be very difficult one indeed.
After warming up and having another coffee we went back out and down the garden towards the dome. On slewing the scope across to Abell 43 a planetary nebular in Orphicus we took the camera off and replaced the deep sky filter with that of the OIII. Mil Dave then hit me on the back as he and I realised what we had just done. By replacing the filter without taking a flat field we had lost the ability to correctly remove the flat from the previous images. Tiredness setting in we also realised the focus had moved and we thought the collimation had too. We moved to a nearby bright star and started to focus. It soon looked like the collimation was out but as the time was now after 3am we thought what the hell lets image it anyway. That's just what wild young astronomers do right?
On setting up a guide star to guide on it was apparent that the field of view was empty. We moved the camera by 90 degrees and took some more frames but again the field of view was empty. Again we moved the camera and again empty. Eventually with frustration, cold and tiredness upon us we slewed around in random and found a star. The autoguider switched on, the scope began to track.....or so we thought. Taking the camera off the scope had meant we needed to re calibrate. This seemingly easy task to those whose IQ is double digits in daylight had been battered into single digits by 3:30am in the morning. We could not get the calibration working nor the guide star to stay in one place.
Nearing the end of the technical challenges that dance in the face of young active astronomers we (Mil Dave and I) decided to take short exposures and stack the results. We set the camera up and started exposing. Once again we decided to venture up to the house for a further warming and comfort brake. The sky looked lighter and my torch no longer needed, we were brief in the house before we set off back down to the dome. Venus hung low in the morning sky as 4:30am came and went. We entered the dome and to our horror or was it humor at this point, we realised the image was hardly noticeable.
The Sun had come up and the sky was light. Morning had arrived. We packed up the dome, locked the door and headed up to the house once more.
I bid my goodbye to Mil Dave and as I quietly tip toed up to a warm bed with the morning chorus in full swing outside, I could not help but smile at another all nighter pulled with a friend and how astronomy is always best shared rather than experienced alone.
Thanks Bob, thanks Mil Dave and thanks to the wonders of the universe.
TARGET LIST :
Quasar - QSO 0957+561
Galaxy Merger - NGC 3808
PLN - Abell 43 (PLN 36+17.1)
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DATE : 24th-25th March 2009
START : 21:30
FINISH : 23:00
WEATHER : 6 DEG C - MilBars - 65% Humidity
UPDATE : John and Bob came round to view Saturn through the 16" with the 24mm and 14mm eyepieces. Saturn slightly tilted so that we could se the ring going round the back of the planet. I could also see 5 moons.
TARGET LIST :
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DATE : 18th-19th March 2009
START : 18:20
FINISH : 01:38
WEATHER : 7 DEG C - MilBars - 55% Humidity
UPDATE : Started by trying to get the autogiuding working. This turned out to take me another 2 hours to crack. The first problem to fix was a second star appearing in the frame. I managed to find a bright star to callibrate on and changed the Callibration Distance to 45 arcseconds. This is for the SBIG at prime focus on the 16".
TARGET LIST :
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DATE : 17th-18th March 2009
START : 19:15
FINISH : 21:21
WEATHER : 10 DEG C - MilBars - 55% Humidity
UPDATE : Decided to Image a Spiral Galaxy NGC 3675 in the constellation Ursa Major. However I needed to guide and I found problems setting up the autoguider and calibrating. Every time I would get one of the following errors.
I searched the Bisque forum and found the following advice.
This means the stellar motion that CCDSoft detects for each relay isn't at right angles to one antother - look at the calibration results.
Remedies:
Make sure you have autodark turned on during calibration.
Make sure you camera is at temperature during calibration.
Make sure you have one and only one bright star in the field while calibrating.
Look at the calibration results and see if you can "see" the problem - (you can manually correct it if one axis is wrong compared to the others- might give hints into root cause - compare to calibration images, etc).
I then went back and sure enough I had a second star appearing on the calibration run. I then tried to move it to a position where the star would not appear. However by the time I achieved this the clouds had rolled in :-(
The dust is still a problem on my sensor. I found a link on the ccdware website
http://www.ccdware.com/resources/dust.cfm
This enabled me to calculate the distance to the dust from the sensor as below.
CCD Camera Pixel Size in Microns: 7.4
Focal Ratio of Telescope: 10
Diameter of Dust Donut in Pixels: 22
CALCULATIONS:
Distance of Dust Donut from CCD Detecter in Milimeters: 1.628
Distance of Dust Donut from CCD Detecter in Inches: 0.064
TARGET LIST :
NGC 3675
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DATE : 16th-17th March 2009
START : 21:30
FINISH : 00:20
WEATHER : 8 DEG C - MilBars - 65% Humidity
UPDATE : Bob came over and we went to mage NGC 3718 again. Managed 1 hour and 30 mins.
TARGET LIST :
NGC 3718
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DATE : 14th-15th March 2009
START : 21:45
FINISH : 23:05
WEATHER : 6 DEG C - MilBars - 60% Humidity
UPDATE : Bob came over and we setup with the 16" and his SBIG. We were going to image NGC 3718 a nice galaxy in Ursa Major but the clouds came over early :-(
The coordinates for the position we need to go to so that the camera is centred so we have a guide star are
RA 11h 32m 59s DEC 53 d 54.5"
TARGET LIST :
NGC 3718
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DATE : 1st/2nd March 2009
START : 20:32
FINISH : 00:18
WEATHER : 3 DEG C - 1014 MilBars - 60% Humidity
UPDATE : Bob came over and we decided to image a few frames of M109 first through the 16". Then took some images of Comet through WO72mm this time tracking at the comets rate.
TARGET LIST :
M109 (to be processed)
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DATE : 28th-1st February/March 2009
START : 21:22
FINISH : 00:12
WEATHER : 2 DEG C - 1007 MilBars - 65% Humidity
UPDATE : Took a 24 min exposure of 35 sec sub frames of Comet C/2007 N3 Lulin through the 16" with Bobs SBIG. This was done at 2x binning and tracking on the comet.
Here is a Raw subframe but with dark and flat applied.
The final stack looks like this.
You can clearly see that the comet takes up most of the frame on the 16". The passage of the comet is to the top left and the tail is streaming out to the bottom right.
I then imaged the comet for 1 frame of 35 sec at 1x1 bin. Next I connected my camera back up after plowing out the dust from the front glass and imaged the comet through the 72mm WO. I took 8 x 3min totaling 21mins. Next I took 1 x 3min exposure of the comet tracking on the comet itself.
I then took flatsand flat darks. I will take the darks in the morning.
TARGET LIST :
Comet Lulin C/2007 N3 (Deep Sky)
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DATE : 21st-22nd February 2009
START : 18:45
FINISH : 00:45
WEATHER : 7 DEG C - 1029 MilBars - 60 % Humidity
UPDATE : Imaged in the Blue channel NGC 2264 with the WO 72mm I now have RGB and Ha as my Luminance so I can now process in colour the Cone Nebula and will post soon. Bob then came over and I realised I knoked the camera when he arrived and then took 40 mins of out of focus images that I then had to retake leaving me with 1 hour of Blue which is fine. however it wasted a couple of hours of imaging. I originally could not work out why the picture was fliped and only after rotating the camera and then taking more photos and then doing a meridian flip and hte problem happening again did I work it out. The flip means the camera is upside down! Again proving that darkness, cold and late nights cause your IQ to lower. Myself and Bob then were chased by time as the clouds were due in before 12am. So we swung round and decided to focus, colimate (which was spot on) and then image M108, a small edge on spiral galaxy in Ursa Major with the 16" . We imaged 25 mins before the clouds got us however the data looks good. I will perform a quick stack later and then wait for a clear night to get further data in RGB as well as Deep Sky.
TARGET LIST :
NGC 2264 - Cone Nebula (Blue and Deep Sky)
M44 - (Deep Sky)
Comet C/2007 N3 Lulin (Deep Sky) (Cloudy so next time)
M108 - Galaxy
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DATE : 13th-14th February 2009
START : 21:54
FINISH : 04:15
WEATHER : -1 DEG C to start then -3 when I finished - ??? MilBars - 70% Humidity
UPDATE : I have not cleaned the camera or scope, however I thought I would come out tonight and image the Cone Nebula with my RGB filters. I started with my Red filter and took 1 hour 5 mins at 5 min sub frames. I then took another 1 hour through the Green filter. I don't have my filter wheel yet so each time I need to take the camera out then change the filter then refocus. At this point the nebula was getting a bit low in the sky so I decided to move onto M44 to take some more frames as this was higher in the sky. I took 30 mins of 5 min sub frames through Green and then Red. I then took another 30 mins of Blue and whilst this was running I popped down to Tesco and purchased flowers and cards for my 3 girls for Valentines Day! I took Flats and Dark Flats for each filter too. I need to take a Deep Sky Luminence for M44 before processing. I also need to take Blue and Deep Sky Luminence and OII for NGC 2264. Another long night of 6 hours!
TARGET LIST :
NGC 2264 - Cone Nebula (Red and Green)
M44 - Beehive Open Cluster (Green, Red and Blue)
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DATE : 11th-12th February 2009
START : 23:20
FINISH : 05:19
WEATHER : 0 DEG C - 1026MilBars - 70% Humidity
UPDATE : Placed my new Ha filter on the SBIG (realised that the Deep Sky filter is Lumicon so not par focal with the Astronomic filters!). Then went and focused. This took some time because the difference in focus was quite substantial. I then slewed to NGC 2264. However because I clicked on the wrong object I downloaded a 5 minute frame for NGC 2261 by accident which is the Hubble Variable Nebula very near by. I then placed the scope on NGC 2264 the Cone Nebula and took a 2 minute frame. This showed the nebula but not the cone. The cone was just South of the image. So I slewed slightly South and placed the Cone at the base of the frame so that the rest of the nebula still appeared at the top. I must admit it would have been better framed if I had turned the camera by 90 degrees however this would have required refoxusing. Since it was very late already I thought I would go with what I had got and start imaging 5 minute sub frames. I then took 27 images totaling 2 hours 15 mins for this exposure. I then too the flats just in case the camera moved before morning. What I then learned was that I needed to expose for much longer on the flats. Instead of my normal 0.6-0.9 seconds I used an exposure of 8 seconds through the Ha filter to get the same level of 30,000 - 35,000. I took 19 of these and then 19 darks whilst I slewed round to my next target. The time was 02:26.
I then imaged Comet C2007 N3 Lulin with the Ha filter. I took a 1min, 5min and 20min exposure.
Still with the Ha filter in I then moved to M44 the Beehive Open Cluster and took 30mins of 6 x 5min subframes. I then had to reboot my laptop for Automatic MS updates. How rubbish is that! So I need to turn that off tomorrow!
Next I swapped to the OIII filter and went back to Comet C2007 N3 Lulin and took another 20 min exposure. However I had to cut it short due to the clouds and only got a little over 17 mins. I then took some Flats for this filter and then packed up for the night.
Tonight I also noticed that after changing filters and getting the same small dark circles and large light circles on my flats I have decided I need to clear my camera and scope. I will clean the camera first and check the results. I will get some more data on M44 and the comet and the Cone Nebula the next night out. I will take Darks tomorrow. Total time out this evening 6 hours.
TARGET LIST :
NGC 2264 - Cone Nebula (Processing)
M44 -Beehive Open Cluster (Processing)
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DATE : 1st-2nd February 2009
START : 18:34
FINISH : 20:45
WEATHER : -2 DEG C - 1007 MilBars - 70% Humidity
UPDATE : Found a dark clear sky. Decided to quickly go out and try to setup Bobs SBIG which is stillon the 16". Went out, took me a while to focus and collimate. Main problem was working out which bit of software to use for focusing after collimation. Finally settled on CCDInspectors FWHM Monitor although I think it was looking at the whole image rather than the star I sellected so I need to check this out when I have more time. Then I had to get the Autoguider working. This was tricky as I was getting an error whilst trying to setup and callibrate. Eventually got the right figures in and started to Autoguide. Took a 60 second exposure which was out of focus so landed up going round the loop again to focus then guide. Finally got a 5 min exposure in action but had to whip up the house to say goodnight to the girls and dry Tayas hair. When I got back down and walked out it was snowing!!!!!! Fast moving clouds I guess and then I was faster legging it down to the observatory to shut the roof. I must have done this in record time. The only image I got was ruined. So shut up the dome for the night.
I need to review the Autoguider manual as well as that of CCDSoft and CCDInspector for focusing.
Here is a single frame of 60 seconds out of focus.
TARGET LIST :
M76 Little Dumbbell
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DATE : 31st-1st February 2008
START : 21:00
FINISH : 00:30
WEATHER : -1 DEG C - 1010 MilBars - 70% Humidity
UPDATE : Bob and John came over to take a photo of anything through the 16". Before they got here I setup the SBIG on the Williams and spent 40 mins setting up and focusing. When Bob arrived I then imaged NGC 663 an Open Cluster very close to M103 in Cassiopea. I took about 30mins of data at 5 min subframes. When John arrived we setup Bobs camera for imaging, I then took my flats, then I took my darks whilst Bob was imaging.
A single frame can be seen here.
A single flat frame can be seen here on the left with the combined and final Flat image with flat-darks subtracted on the right.
A single dark can be seen here on the left and a combined dark on the right.
The final processed NGC 663 can be seen from the link below or to the left.
John decided on M76 the Little Dumbbell planetary nebula to image. We collimated the scope using CCDInspector which was only slightly out and then focused! This was key and we landed up focusing with Maxim as single star focus was best. The Multi star focus of CCDInspector was not very good and jumped around a lot in terms of colour shift.
We then had the usual imaging setup problems with the new MaximDL...damm those new menus! Once all that was sorted we started imaging. We got 1 image of 5 mins then the clouds rolled in :-)
Below is the 1 x 5 min sub frame for the Little Dumbbell
[add frame]
TARGET LIST :
NGC 663 Open Cluster [To be processed]
M76 Little Dumbbell Planetary Nebula
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DATE : 23rd-24th January 2008
START : 21:30
FINISH : 01:34
WEATHER : 0 DEG C - 985 MilBars - 75% Humidity
UPDATE : Bob cam over with his camera and we setup on the 16". Tonight we wanted to practice our collimation using CCDInspector. We needed to install various pieces of software on the laptop for Bob to connect to the ME and then take images as Bob had just upgraded his MaximDL. We then used CCDInspector to review the focus and the collimation. Below is the image from the Curvature Map showing us finally collimated (as best we could get this evening) but out of focus.
[Curvature Map add here]
The Multi-Star Collimation Viewer looked like this in the end. You can see from the pink image that this is out of focus but the cross-hairs show a good collimation
Once we got enough stars in the field of view (you need min 50) then the quality of the collimation was shown and we soon went turning Bobs-Knobs and very quickly reasoned the seeing was causing more problems than the scope itself.
We then setup MaximDL to autoguide and took a 5 min exposure of the Rosete Nebula. Below is a raw frame.
In summary we learnt a lot and now need to go out on the next clear night and take some frames.
TARGET LIST : None
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DATE : 20th - 21st January 2009
START : 21:40
FINISH : 00:15
WEATHER : 0 DEG C - 996 MilBars - 70% Humidity
UPDATE : Setup autoguiding through the WO72mm. This is the first time I have attempted to autoguide. If I can crack this then I am ready to move the camera t the 16" to them practice collimation with my new purchase of CCDInspector software. Managed to setup the autoguider and calibrate using 10 seconds for X and Y axis as a delay. Found out that whilst taking an image using the Focus Tools tab that it stops guiding temporarily. I then took a 10 min exposure of a patch of sky around 35 degrees in Declination and 3hours in RA. On the Sky6 I could see the scope moving if I zoomed right in presumably due to the autoguiding. The autoguider was set to 5 seconds for each exposure although this may turn out to be too small a time on the 72mm. I expect to use a larger amount here and smaller on the 16" where guiding is needed for around 45 seconds and only over 5 mins on the 72mm Williams Optics in most parts of the sky.
Looking at the FWHM and HFD of the 10 min image the values were a respectable 1.28" and 1.18" respectively. The image was also very respectabl. Both the image and the monitor output are below for completeness.
I then took an image without guiding and was surprised to see that the image was better in respect of visual inspection and the monitor report. Again see below for the resuls of FWHM of 0.69" and 0.93" of HFD.
So, I then decided to try an image without autoguiding for 20 mins to see if it trailed. As you can see from the results it did not. I have a very good mount it would seem. Results can be seen below.
So, I am now in a position to try another exposure, this time 30 mins. If this fails to trail I will move the camera to the 16" and test there as that trails after about 1 min.
Well it trailed! here are the results with the Aspect ratio being about 117 where 36 waqs round stars before the elongation is noticeable
So I could try and take a 30min exposure with autoguiding but it would be easier and less time to do this on the 16" so I will wait until another night and try. I also need to work out what is wrong with my other USB lead and extention as it currently does not work! always issues..........
TARGET LIST : None
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DATE : 18th - 19th January 2009
START : 19:26
FINISH : 20:30
WEATHER : 3.5 DEG C - 999 MilBars - 70% Humidity
UPDATE : Spent the 1 hour in the dome trying to make the camera work! Upgraded XP the ther day to Service Pack 3 and when I reinstalled the drivers for SBIG the camera was not found. Then had a problem with a cable and some water that got into the dome! Could not find the leak though. However I did manage to get the Direct Guide wroking so that CCDSoft now drives the ME and the Autoguider should now work. It unfortunately clouded over before I could get a shot to test.
TARGET LIST : None
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DATE : 3rd - 4th January 2009
START : 20:48
FINISH : 0:34
WEATHER : --4.5 DEG C - 1028 MilBars - 70% Humidity
UPDATE : Good early evening imaging. Took images of Cave that were washed out last time due to low cloud. Took first hour of data for IC 1396
TARGET LIST :
Caldwell C9-Cave Nebula 17 x 5min (redo in Ha)
IC1396 Elephant Trunk Nebula 12 x 5min (Centre on SAO 33549) (more frames needed and in Ha, OIII and Sulphur II)
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DATE : 3rd January 2009
START : 01:27
FINISH : 04:34
WEATHER : -3 DEG C - 1020 MilBars - 70% Humidity
UPDATE : Started imaging the Horse Head and Flame nebula. Took 24 images and then I moved on at about 3am to the Trio in Leo, M66, M65 and NGC 3628.
TARGET LIST :
Horse Head Nebula 24 x 3min
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DATE : 7th-8th December 2008
START : 20:30
FINISH : 22:20
WEATHER : 0 DEG C - 1008 MilBars - 70% Humidity
UPDATE : Took images of Bubble nebula with the WO72mm. The field of view also contained the Open Cluster M52 and another small nebula that I cannnot find the name of yet???
TARGET LIST :
M52 Open Cluster
???? Nebula
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DATE : 6th-7th December 2008
START : 20:35
FINISH : 02:15
WEATHER : 0 DEG C - 1008 MilBars - 75% Humidity
UPDATE : Setup my new astronomy laptop with the ME and SBIG. Put a 1.25inch nosepiece on the SBIG with my Deep Sky Filter. Took a while to focus but once done and the software was installed I started to image with the WO72mm. I took darks and flats and flat darks.
TARGET LIST :
Pelican Nebula - 15 x 5min
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