Blog from February, 2023

AutoGuiding and Color Imaging
Shreyansh Kumar posted on Feb 28, 2023

Date/Time

20230228T1800-2315

People

Shrey, Roy, Connor, Onkar

Spaces

401, 433C, Dome

Goals

  1. Identify next steps with autoguiding
  2. Take color picture of M42 (on-axis)
  3. Test EXCOM DFM Scope Position retrieval
  4. Align CMOS, north-up
  5. Remove ST4 CPU

Log

  1. Discussed three autoguider options
    1. Option 1 (Relay Cable): Create adapter between CMOS ST4 Port and free "relay" cable meant for ST4 CPU(15 pin serial), use PHD2 (or similar) to provide autoguiding singal via CMOS-ST4-Relay connection
    2. Option 2 (HandPaddle port): Create adapter between USB-ST4, and adapter between ST4-AMP14Pin Handpaddle port 
    3. Option 3 (Autoguider port): Create adapter between USB-ST4, and adapter between ST4-Autoguider Port in rear of TCS
  2. Followed Start-Up Procedure
  3. Deep-Sky CMOS on Finderscope connected via Icron Box
  4. Color Planetary CMOS on-axis connected via LBD2 and into teal 10Gbs DC port
  5. Both cameras connected to SharpCap without issue
  6. Removed ST4 CPU. Stored on bookshelf
  7. Pointed to the Moon
  8. Connected Thor Instrument Rotator to Icron Extender Box
    1. Rotated on-axis CMOS by 260deg to align N(on-axis) to N(finderscope)
  9. Looked at M42, took three exposures more than 5 minutes apart
  10. TCP/IP Exploration
    1. Disconnected TS6 from telescope
    2. DFM TCS > Comunicatons > ExCom > No Conn, then serial settings. Set Port to COM4. Apply. Then started connection
    3. Set TCP/IP to Active
    4. Opened TCPComm, set to IP and port in TCP/IP window
    5. Was able to get pointing information in TCPComm. See image below.
  11. Closed up
    1. Zenith
      1. Issued this EDICT via TCPComm WITHOUT ExCom connection enabled in DFM TCS Software.
      2. WE DON'T UNDERSTANDDDDD
    2. Mirror Doors Closed
    3. Dome Closed

ToDo

  1. We need to develop parts list for testing options 1-3
    1. Shrey will get part number of relay cable connector for ST4 CPU from ENGR drawings
    2. Onkar gave links (see below) for ST4-USB adapter
    3. Connor will read ENGR drawings and determine pin-outs for BOTH handpaddle and autoguider ports
      1. ALONG WITH part numbers
  2. Onkar 

Notes

  1. Pointing color CMOS to M42, got FWHM of 7 pix, determine the seeing disk diameter from this in arcsec
  2. https://astronomy-imaging-camera.com/product/zwo-usbst4-guider-adapter
  3. https://telescopes.net/zwo-usb-st4-adapter.html
  4. Color CMOS has learning curve. That's it. -OR

ST4 (cable) autoguiding attempt
Shreyansh Kumar posted on Feb 24, 2023

Date/Time: 2/24/2023 1630-1830

People: Gabriel, Shrey

Spaces Occupied: Control room, dome

Goals: Find an alternative way to connect the telescope to PHD2 for autoguiding purposes


Log: 

  1. Split ST4 cable into its pins.
  2. The pinout seems different from other ST4 cables/ports/interfaces on the internet.
    1. Blue = Unused
    2. Yellow = GND
    3. Green = West
    4. Red = South
    5. Black = North
    6. White = East
  3. Connected ASI178MM to DC via ZWO USB3.0 cable. Connected to right Cyan USB port on the back of the DC.
  4. On PHD2, goto "Guide" → "Connect equipment" → "Mount" → Select "ASI ST4 Telescope Driver (ASCOM)" → "Connect"
  5. After a successful connection, goto "Tools" → "Manual guide". Set the Guide pulse duration to 3000ms (This is only for testing, when autoguiding this needs to be much smaller.)
  6. After connecting the multimeter prongs to "GND" and red pin on the cable and putting the multimeter in resistance measuring mode, pressed "South" on PHD2 manual guide window.
  7. The meter shows a resistance of 210Ω while the guide pulse is ongoing. 
  8. After connecting the ST4 GND → front paddle port pin 9 and Red st4 pin → p2 on front paddle port, I pressed "South" on "Manual Guide" window on PHD2, while also holding down the slew button on the other handpaddle. The telescope slewed south.




Note: 

The telescope only does the slight movement mentioned in my last post when "Drives" switch is on and "MDC" switch is turned off. No movement occurs when "Drives" switch is turned off first. 


Todo:

  • Order ZWO USB to ST4 adapter. 
  • Order a 14pin AMP male connector
  • Make an actual RJ-12 to 14pin AMP adapter cable.
Autoguider Testing
Roy Prouty posted on Feb 23, 2023

Date/Time

20230223T1810-2330

People

Shrey, Roy, (Kasra), Onkar, Connor

Spaces

401, 433C, Dome

Goals

  1. Figure out auto-guider
    1. Get something other than "99 0 0" to be shown
    2. Determine how to collect guider data on CC
  2. Show Kasra the Moon and Mars
  3. Test Mirror Doors

Log

  1. Monitors were either not working or flickering, see notes.
  2. Rebooted machine
  3. Determined flickering was due to USB lines. We removed all but LBD1 (w/ power) and Icron Extender
  4. We couldn't find adapters for planetary camera, so re-attached the filter wheel and planetary camera on-axis
  5. SharpCap couldn't find FinderScope (Deep-Sky Camera)
    1. Determined the issue was with USB connections to DC Tower.
    2. Deep-Sky connected to LDB2, then to DC 10Gb USB port (tealISH)
    3. On-axis camera connected to remote Icron Extender Box, which is connected to local box via CAT7, which is connected to DC 20Gb USB-C port
    4. The ZWO Filter Wheel is connected to the remote Icron Extender Box as well
    5. This configuration works – testing via SharpCap
  6. Opened Dome via ASCOM
  7. Opened the Mirror Doors without issue
    1. Be sure to have the Mirror Doors analog switch set to "Open"
      1. This allows DFM TCS to control the mirror doors
  8. Pointed at the Moon, pointing was off
  9. Shrey eye-balled pointing from dome with feedback from control room
  10. Updated Telescope Position
  11. Then pointed at Tycho
  12. Updated Telescope Position
  13. Then pointed at Mars
  14. Updated Telescope Position
  15. Disconnected filter wheel and planetary from on-axis
    1. The filter wheel needed to be calibrated
    2. J/K it was fine. SharpCap knew what was up
    3. https://www.baader-planetarium.com/en/baader-ubvri-bessel-filter-set-%E2%80%93-photometric.html
    4. Note: The apparent color of the filter is NOT the passband of the filter (smile)
  16. Closed Mirror Doors
  17. Closed Dome Shutters
    1. There are concerns over the lower shutter overdriving after closing, but still driving until upper shutter closes
  18. Stored filter wheel in planetary box in shelf with filter wheel cable
  19. AUTO GUIDING EXPERIMENT
Auto Guiding Experiment
  1. Autoguider CCD is affixed on-axis


  1. We will follow SBIG ST4 Manual: Quick Start Guide (pgs 4-7; https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eZHGE03GMtdPJj9Op_cJs9yjb29Hh9o2/view?usp=share_link)
  2. After plugging in Guider CCD to ST4, it showed "99 0 0"
  3. Cardboard box is covering light baffle
  4. Connor and Shrey are trying to find a set of settings that gives ANY other value for the readout, other than "99 0 0"
    1. EA (Exposure Adjust) was set to its lowest value (0.1s)
    2. b (Boost Factor) was set to its lowest value (1)
    3. BA (Brightness Adjustment) was set to its normal value (A), which only collects data from one pixel
      1. As opposed to "F" which sums the pixel value along with its eight neighbors
  5. Connor and Shrey took a Dark Frame, and then switched back to "Find and Focus".
  6. The display then showed "0 0 0"
    1. This makes sense since the Dark Frame is subtracted from the value
  7. Moved on to step 5 of the start up guide.
    1. opened shutters, mirrors, and uncovered baffle
    2. pressed "find and focus" per guide instructions
    3. slewed to capella, eye balling it confirmed its probably capella
    4. values still "0, 0, 0"
  8. restarting, NEW PLAN
    1. removed ccd, installed on-axis camera to confirm we are pointing at capella as a test star
    2. removed on-axis camera, installed ccd
    3. closed dome, darkened dome, covered baffle with box
    4. beginning step 1 of quick start guide (again)
  9. ATTEMPT 2
    1. step 1: ccd installed and powered, currently reading "99, 0, 0"
    2. step 2: beginning calibration, waiting two minutes
    3. step 3: still at "99, 0, 0"
    4. step 4: taking dark frame, dropped to "0,0,0"
    5. step 5: "find and focus" pressed, removed box, opening shutters, already slewed to capella
      1. still seeing "0,0,0"
      2. next steps?
    6. deviating from the manual, going to try and adjust EA to the maximum value and see if we can get anything besides 0
      1. roy raised a point, if the max value is 99 and we are using the value as the dark value, no matter what we get we could just be subtracting 99 and getting 0 for every capture we take
      2. SUCCESS? we got a value of 99
      3. display refreshes every 20 seconds
    7. reduced EA to 1 second
      1. still getting 99
    8. reduced EA to 0.1 seconds
      1. getting 99???
      2. this may be because when we change certain settings, we need to take a new dark frame
    9. changing EA to 20 seconds, shutting hatch, taking another dark frame
      1. (0,0,0) is being displayed
    10. opening shutters, uncovering baffle, attempting another "find and focus"
      1. at least three frames had been taken, still displaying "0,0,0"
  10. Attempting to take image via CCD
    1. shrey, onkar and connor split ways looking into software to utilize the ccd
    2. onkar:
      1. https://diffractionlimited.com/legacy-product-support/
      2. i found this, it looks promising but i could not get it to work
      3. in CCDOps5, there is an autoguide option under "track" in the top command bar
      4. could be promising if we ever get the software to work
    3. connor:
      1. https://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=48422
      2. https://www.sysnettechsolutions.com/en/install-windows-98-virtualbox-windows-10/#:~:text=After%20making%20all%20the%20necessary,machine%20and%20click%20Start%20again
      3. https://www.virtualbox.org/
      4. found the above, Forum from 2009 saying the software can't be used on anything after Windows 98SE
      5. can emulate win98 via virtualbox
      6. will be helpful for shrey's tab as well
    4. shrey:
      1. d:/downloads/SBIG FTP SERVER DATA DUMP/ccd/ccd.exe
      2. found that it could only run on win98
      3. downloaded everything off the SBIG FTP server (nice), initial passing of the contents revealed ccd.exe mentioned in the SBIG ST-4 manual used for comm with ccd
    5. all three of us will independently investigate these softwares

Closing up

  1. seemed like we needed to wait for dome shutters to close all the way before mirror doors would close via tcs
  2. switches switched off
  3. GOOBAI

ToDo

Notes

  1. We don't know where the adapters are for the planetary camera ↔ GAM-lite
  2. Second DC monitor is not on. Primary monitor is flickering.
  3. There is no set of caps/coverings for filter wheel. We feel weird leaving it in a rando
  4. There are concerns over the lower shutter overdriving after closing, but still driving until upper shutter closes
  5. Might have located MEADE telescope cover


Weather

Data

Idea for control of the telescope for autoguiding
Gabriel Koletsi posted on Feb 22, 2023

Date/Time: 2/22/2023 1345-1700

People: Gabriel

Spaces Occupied: Control room, dome

Goals: Find an alternative way to connect the telescope to PHD2 for autoguiding purposes


Log

  1. Previously we attempted to use PHD2 for autoguiding. These attempts failed due to the telescope mount not supporting the Pulse Guide property required for guiding.
  2. Another form of autoguiding can be done using a simple ST4 (RJ-12) cable connection. This is what commercial telescopes use. The DFM telescope doesn't have any way of connecting this way.
  3. What can be done (or at least attempted) is to use a USB to ST4 adapter to connect the st4 cable to the TCS. This will be done by connecting the appropriate pins of the ST4 cable to the paddle port on the TCS (14pin AMP connector).
  4. Using the above picture we can connect the pins of the ST4 cable to the hand paddle port. We can have a switch to enable the SET rate button. 
  5. We should also be able to test this by connecting the DC to one of our ZWO CMOS cams and then connect a ST4 cable in the same configuration as above. This will allow us to test if this would work without needing to wait and buy the usb adapter. We can then issue movement commands from phd2 on the DC to see if this works.
  6. In the PHD2 connectivity settings we can then use the "ZWO USBST4 (ASCOM)" mount driver. After setting everything else up, this might be a good solution. 
  7. Possible flaws:
    1. The st4 interface might not work in the same way as the hand paddles do. The hand paddles are basically just a couple of switches. This should be similar to the other st4 autoguiding interfaces. We can test this by doing a continuity test on a NEXSTAR auto-guider's st4 output. We have those available on a couple of the celestrons. 
    2. If this is the case, we could make a circuit to change the signals to an appropriate form.


NOTE: I found someone else mentioning that they have done something similar for a DFM telescope system. Link


Todo :

  • Talk to Eric about camera installation
  • Get a usb to st4 adapter

Notes: Upon turning MDC off, the telescope moves slightly. This happens repeatedly. Can't understand reason for this other than software bug.

Weather: 100% Cloud Cover

Data:


Attempting to use old AutoGuider System (SBIG ST4)
Onkar Rekhi posted on Feb 21, 2023

Time/Date

20230221T1900-2300

People

Obs/Astropol: Onkar, Roy, Shrey, Connor

Spaces Occupied

401, control room, dome

Goals

  1. Get old autoguiding system working
  2. Measure "BAD" tracking (w/ DEC ~0deg)
  3. Attempt to fix previous by using old AG system

Log

  1. Connor outlined possible autoguiding solutions
  2. Issue Guiding Commands from DC to CC
    1. This method doesn't seem actionable, presently
    2. We don't have a good, reliable way to send commands from DC to CC based on guiding software
  3. Use old system
    1. This is the most actionable method, but uses the most outdated hardware
  4. Use CC with MaxImDL/PHD2
    1. This method would also work, but requires that MaxImDL/PHD2 can send motor commands
    2. MaxImDL seems to have this functionality – but we don't knowwww
    3. Gabriel and Connor tried to look into this and determined that either:
      1. The drivers be bad
      2. The cables be slow – Gabriel says this likely doesn't matter
  5. Looked for any relevant documentation RE autoguiding
  6. Attempting to turn on old system
Old System
  1. We located the SBIG ST-4 Manual (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eZHGE03GMtdPJj9Op_cJs9yjb29Hh9o2/view?usp=share_link)
  2. We found and attached the CCD via Cable Head port, power cable (from PHYS 306A), and confirmed that the cable labelled "Relays" is attached to the ST-4 CPU 
  3. Powered the CPU (just connected power) and it displayed 99 in VALUE and 0 in both the X & Y fields
    1. Per the manual, the value display only goes from 0-99 indicating the percentage of the maximum value the CCD records
    2. Per the Company7 site (see below) (http://www.company7.com/library/sbig/sbwhtmls/st4_op_james_janusz.html), when the system is in "Find and Focus" mode, the value is the maximum value found in the CCD frame and the X & Y positions locate that pixel
    3. HOWEVER This display kept blinking ...
  4. We couldn't find anything in the manuals or online resources (le googs) about what the blinking meant, we assume it is either an error OR the accurate read-out of the highest pixel value in the CCD frame.
  5. Adjusting Exposure Time
    1. We hoped that by reducing the exposure time from the default 1s, that the 99 would decrease to some normal level
    2. We tried adjusting the exposure time by pressing INTERRUPT and then MENU until it showed EA 1 (Exposure Adjustment Mode).
    3. Pressed adjust until it displayed EA 0.1 (0.1s exposures)
    4. Pressed MENU again to drop out of this mode and to then adjust calibration (CA screen). This instead brought us to boost parameter (bA) which we set to 1.
    5. Pressed MENU again to return to normal and see the "HELLO" on the display.
  6. Hit FIND AND FOCUS. Initially displayed 0 in all screens and later displayed 99 in VALUE and 0 in X & Y fields.
    1. This doesnt make any sense, the mirror doors are covered and the dome is dark, the sensor physically cannot be picking up a bright star.
    2. We tested this gain by taking the CCD off axis and shoving it in a box, also in the same dark dome, still 99 for VALUE and 0 in X & Y fields.
    3. As far as we can tell from the manual, if the brightest pixel is reading a value of 99, the x and y fields should be populated with which pixel value that is and not 0. unless (0,0) is the brightest pixel which also doesnt make any sense. or all of them and just shows the first pixel, who knows.
  7. Conclusion: its busted.

ToDo


Notes

From Company7 Site (above)

"The ST-4 has a "find and focus" function. This function takes repeated exposures, and displays the results on the ST-4 display panel. It displays the location of the brightest object on the CCD in x and y coordinates and it displays the brightness of the object expressed as a percentage of pixel saturation."


Weather



Data


1 Comment
Observation Night
Onkar Rekhi posted on Feb 18, 2023

Time/Date

20230218T1600-2245

People

Obs/Astropol: Onkar, Jackson, Shrey, Meyer, Gabriel
GUEST: Olivia

Spaces Occupied

433C, 401, Dome

Goals

  1. Make things work
  2. Observe venus DURING THE DAY
  3. Observe:
    1. Mars
    2. ZTF
    3. M42 (Great Orion Nebula)
    4. M31 (Andromeda Galaxy)
    5. M1 (Crab nebula)
    6. M81 (Bode's Galaxy)
    7. 3c 273 (Blazar)

Log

  1. Followed startup procedure -onkar, shrey, meyer
  2. Installed polarimeter on-axis and zwo pro on spotter scope
    1. On-Axis connected to ____ Cable
    2. Finder scope connected to ____ Cable
  3. Attempted viewing of venus
    1. Very bright
    2. and cloudy
    3. no joy
  4. Taking off PICSI
  5. Figuring out filter wheel in sharpcap/zwo software
    1. In sharpcap, go to:
    2. Settings - hardware tab - filter wheel
      1. if filter wheel not show up in tabs, manually choose the filterwheel in "select hardware"
    3. "it thinks there are two, there are not two" - Jackson
  6. installed color wheel for on-axis scope
  7. REATTEMPTING VENUS
    1. we done goofed, the mirror doors were shut
    2. reslewed to zenith, installed normal on-axis camera, opened mirror doors
    3. found in spotter, taking a long time to find on axis
      1. It's because we are bad
      2. nvm Jackson found it immediately, I'm just bad -Onkar
    4. found it, focus at 2275.0
      1. nvm nvm jackson lost it
      2. FOUND IT AGAIN
    5. spotter x:3416, y:1701
    6. set next object position as venus for better pointing
      1. tcs-telescope-initialization-"use next object position"-apply
    7. took way too many captures
  8. ATTEMPTING CAPELLA
    1. goal is to get our focus better
      1. success kinda
    2. spotter x:3430, y:1865
  9. Attempting Mars
    1. spotter: x:3432 y:1756
    2. updated object position
    3. jackson is good at finding 
  10. Attempting ZTF
    1. on-axis was on target! 
    2. spotter x:3417 y:1694
      1. neglect this, not entirely centered on on-axis scope
  11. Attempting m31
    1. found it, mostly on target for on-axis
    2. spotter x:3411, y:1702
  12. Attempting m42
    1. on target, woooo
    2. pretty as always
  13. Attempting m1
    1. jackson extremely confident in our pointing, taking capture immediately
    2. some point during this, gabirel dropped his laptop and lost a screw, if anybody finds a screw in the control room its probably his
    3. okayish images, kinda smol
  14. Attempting m81
    1. okayish images, lots of stars but no real nebulosity
  15. Attempting MKN 421
    1. slew right ascesion: 11 hours, 4 min, 27.3 sec
    2. slew declination: 38 degs, 12 min, 32 sec
    3. clouds rolling in at this point in time, visually confirmed via spotter scope, take data with grain of salt
    4. 26,000 lum
    5. ordered pizza
    6. did five 3 min exposures in V filter
    7. did another five 3 min exposures in B filter
  16. Closing up
    1. slewed to zenith
    2. closed mirror doors
    3. taking dark frames for on-axis
    4. pizza time
    5. should be noted we closed shutters after taking darks
    6. when using ascom to close shutters, bottom shutter closes early and motor keeps running, may be a good idea to not remote close the shutters and instead, manually close them
    7. we left the cameras ON GASP , seemed like a good idea to keep the system as is if its working great and to reduce wear and tear

ToDo

  1. check discord permissions for #announcements_obs, it would appear folks with the @observatory_fans role could post there 
  2. look into x y distribution on for targets appearing on-axis vs their respective x y values in spotter scope
  3. sharpcap weirdness again when running two instances. Before, this had happened when both cameras were plugged into the icron extender. This time, only the spotter scope was plugged into the icron extender and the on-axis camera was plugged into LBD2.
  4. adhesive velcro to slap the remote icron extender box onto the side of gam-lite would make running cables easier, the gam-lite power cable would have to be run up to the network power strip thing, making the cat 7 cable the only cable running up from the steel cable enclosure box thing to the scope.
  5. Organize wiki better? (Onkar says to Roy (tongue))

Notes

  • Spotter scope: 952mm focal length based on Google Search of model number (?)
  • Adjust spotter scope focus, looks pretty good but could be perfect -Jackson
  • We got some real gosh darn good pointing tonight (what does this meannn?) (it meannnns we were able to point at stuff and see them on-axis pretty much immediately and not have to hunt for them, also seeing was really good)

Weather

CDK: 10% cloud cover, average seeing, average transparency

Data

SharpCap Standard folder on DC which is mirrored on googleDrive

Equatorial Tracking Study
Roy Prouty posted on Feb 13, 2023

Time/Date

20230213T1800-2330

People

Roy, Shreyansh, Matt, Connor, Gabriel, Natalie, Tara, Azzan

Spaces Occupied

401, 433C, Dome

Goals

  1. Set standards for measuring seeing with DFM Scope
  2. Discuss calibration frames for DFM Scope
  3. Plan and execute observation plan

Log

  1. CC:
    1. DFM TCS
    2. ASCOM Dome
    3. TheSky6
  2. DC:
    1. Blue Iris Admin
    2. SharpCap
  3. CC: Opened Dome; ASCOM Dome: Connect > Open
  4. Connected Cameras
    1. Planetary Camera to On-Axis, using LBD1 Cable
    2. Deep-Sky Camera to Finder Scope using Icron Extender Box
  5. Cameras connected without issue
  6. Collected flats on planetary camera
  7. Opened Mirror Doors
    1. CC: DFM TCS; Telescope > Misc > Switches/Mirror Doors > Open Mirror Doors
  8. CC: TS6; Established Connection; 
  9. Chose to point on Capella (not Mars) :'( ← Matt
  10. Had to true-up dome-telescope azimuth alignment
  11. Couldn't point on Capella → went to Mars ... it kinda worked
  12. Moved to small star to adjust focus, got to 11 FWHM
  13. Auto-doming didn't work
    1. It just didn't track to NGC 2068. We manually aligned using Scope/Dome reported azimuth
    2. While manually moving the dome, it kept going .... had to disable
  14. Cataloged all transit times for NGCs Connor provided
    1. Decided to go for NGC 2068, then NGC 2232, then NGC 2301
  15. Set each for 3 frames five minutes apart
  16. Argument about pineapple on pizza ensued
  17. Telescope and dome are again out of alignment
  18. TURNS OUT ROY LEFT THE DOME TRACKING SWITCH OFF
  19. Looked at Great Orion Nebula, looked at Mars, 
  20. attempted look at 3c273 too close to the horizon to see
  21. Azzan and Matt went around on the roof to check the location of the dome relative to DFM scope 
  22. briefly looked at a software to find a way to get objects' transit time and altitude instead of handwriting them
    1. astroplan was too messy 
    2. Roy looked at something else but it must not have worked?
  23. argued about how to pronounce LaTeX and gif 
    1. Decided Roy was correct
  24. Slewed to zenith
  25. Closed mirror doors
  26. Closed dome
  27. Took down cameras

ToDo

Get Pizza (w/ pineapple) NO

Notes

15.042''/s in AUX TRACK is NOT the same as 15.042''/s in TRACK – no idea why

Still need to:

  1. Set standards for measuring seeing with DFM Scope
  2. Discuss calibration frames for DFM Scope

Weather

Weather Forecast: 6-7% cloud coverage, humidity in the 40-50% range. 

Wunderground: Below 4% cloud coverage after 8pm, humidity ~45%. 

Astrospheric: Cloud coverage is excellent, transparency is pretty good, seeing is below average. 

ClearDarkSky: Both cloud coverage and transparency is excellent, seeing is poor. 


Data

Flats saved in "D:\SharpCap Captures\2023-02-13"

Monday Funday
Roy Prouty posted on Feb 06, 2023

Time/Date

20230206T1900-2300

People

Onkar, Roy, joined later by Gabriel (for 30 mins), then Matt, Natalie, Katie, Azzan. Roy left at 2145

Spaces Occupied

433C, 401, Dome

Goals

  1. Open things up
  2. Close them down
  3. Observe stars, blazars, and maybe Mars
  4. Observe ZTF

Log

  1. Followed opening procedure
  2. Connected cameras to scope
    1. planetary on axis
    2. deep sky on finderscope
  3. added SECOND MONITOR WOAH THERES TWO NOW
    1. streamed to discord the second screen, left half being the finderscope, right half being the deep view
  4. pointing at Capella
  5. Attempting to focus
    1. Attempted to measure Seeing via FWHM reported by SharpCap in pixels.
    2. Calculated 25'' for planetary camera (13.8 pix average for best FWHM measure)
      1. 2.4um/pix → 6500 mm focus for DFM Scope → pixScale/focalLength*206.265
    3. Couldn't accurately determine focal length of finderscope, so couldn't figure angular resolution of detector easily
  6. It was very clear that the tracking is off with on-axis camera
  7. Moved to ZTF, similar to last time: just fuzzy
  8. Took some saves with finderscope (darn: saved as PNGs)
    1. Onkar fixed this. Roy only made it worse
    2. onkar update: pixel resolution is still off idk how to fix it but still usable
  9. Moved to a variety of blazar objects:
    1. m87 - on Eastern horizon. Will rise through haze after clouds arrive
    2. 3c 273 - in virgo, below the horizon
    3. ngc 1275 - Sparse
    4. ngc 3862 - east, lots of light pollution in that direction
    5. m77 - Galaxy, tried to get good exposures
      1. unsuccessful, not sure if I was looking at it
    6. m42 - great orion nebula, beautiful as always
    7. ngc 1432 - pleiades maia nebula, purdy
  10. SHUTTING DOWN - Shutters incident
    1. Shutters no shut
    2. Onkar pressed "close shutters" on DFM TCS, activity message said "OPENING SHUTTERS"
    3. Matt visually confirmed, shutters no shut
    4. Onkar scratched head and had the bright idea to click "open shutters"
    5. since shutters already open, shutters no open more
    6. Onkar let it run until it stopped on its own, clicked "close shutters" again
    7. same issue as before, shutters no shut, same activity message on DFM, very sad
    8. attempted shutting shutters after flipping off "auto dome" and "track", still nothing
    9. Onkar gave up at this point trying to close the shutters via DFM TCS
    10. Onkar went upstairs to shutter panel, flipped switch from "remote" to "manual"
      1. I forgot if its actually called manual but the one that's not remote, ykwim
      2. anyway
    11. after flipping switch, closed shutters via switches in shutter panel
    12. after shutters closed, onkar put shutter switches back to neutral and the command switch from "manual" back to "remote"
    13. will test if shutters open and close via DFM software at next working session

ToDo

  1. Second security camera needs to be installed near dome encoder.
  2. Get static IP for network switch
  3. Roy: Bring side table in for control room

Notes

  1. Tracking is bad. – We observed Capella move upwards out of the frame over the course of minutes while using the on-axis planetary CMOS.
  2. Dome shutter woes – Onkar Rekhi 
  3. Need to ensure data is saved in FITS files. PNGs are dumb. - Roy

Weather

NOAA: 30% sky cover

WU: 0%-10% sky cover

CSC: Poor transparency, Poor Seeing

Data

SharpCap Standard folder on DC and also on googleDrive

February Open House
Roy Prouty posted on Feb 04, 2023

Time/Date

20230202T1700-2300

People

Tara, Natalie, Matt, Roy, Onkar, Connor, Henry VIII, John, ???

Spaces Occupied

PHYS 401, 433C, Dome

Goals

  1. Run open house, duh
  2. Cloudy: Not opening dome.

Log

  1. LOTS OF PEOPLE
  2. We needed to get additional chairs. Some were stolen from 306A, the tutorial center, etc.
  3. Coloring! Lots of people enjoyed coloring from 1900-1930
  4. Roy delivered Tara's Current Event slides with Tara's help
  5. Roy delivered Galaxies talk from Prezi
  6. Onkar & Matt led control room tours
  7. Natalie & Tara led dome tours
  8. Roy kept other people busy in 401 with discussions on galactic isophotes, detectors, telescopes, and light.

ToDo

  1. Need to figure out game-plan for the next time too many people show up

Notes

The best estimate based on multiple head-counts and the sign-in sheet is about 70 people.

Weather

Cloudy! No weather reported.

Data

None collected.