Blog from July, 2023

RIP Filter Wheel
Azzan Porter posted on Jul 31, 2023

Time
20230731T1830-2359


Peoples
Azzan, Onkar, Roy


Places
PHYS 401, 433C, Dome

Observation Plan


Log

  1. Opened dome, mirror doors at 20h
  2. Attached ASI 294MM Pro on axis
  3. Took 40 flat frames for each binning mode on-axis and on finder
  4. seeing frames
    1. Looked at Dubhe for seeing frame
      1. DON'T DO THIS AGAIN
      2. DUBHE DOO BEE A DOUBLE STAR SYSTEM
    2. Looked at hd123299
      1. gr8
      2. sharcap reports fwhm at 7.355
      3. messing with focus
        1. original: 2116
        2. new: 2120
    3. pi herc
      1. better than hd123299
      2. fwhm: 6.7ish +_ 0.01
  5. PRETTY FRAMES
    1. finderscope data line BROKT
      1. it would seem that the middle part of the cable snagged on the ethernet protrusion, pulling the cable taught and snapping the end of the usb.
      2. solution: take usb guts out of asi2600mm, install shorter cable
      3. verified everything still works
    2. m57
      1. sky super bright, stars around 20k, sky at 10k
    3. abell 2146
      1. had to punch in ra and dec
  6. NORMAL CLOSING PROCEUDRES


ToDo

Write more observation plans


Data
Normal Place


Weather
At 20h

33% humidity

29C in dome

22C in CR


At 2115

40% humidity

28 C in dome

23C in CR

Observing Session - POST PAINT
Onkar Rekhi posted on Jul 26, 2023

Time
20230726T1800-0000

Peoples
Roy, Onkar, Connor

Places
PHYS 401, 433C, Dome

Goals

  1. Put control room back together
  2. Confirm operation of scope, DC, CC
  3. Discuss seeing and tracking studies

Log

  1. Put control room back together
    1. Big differences
      1. Bookshelves next to each other
      2. No filing cabinet
      3. Minifridge on counter – not yet filled with beverages 
      4. Dream guide stuck to side of monitor
  2. Scope works!
    1. Poorly aligned
    2. Pointed at Moon (took pics!)
    3. Then refined pointing on Vega
  3. Trying to take seeing frame
    1. Dubhe
    2. Theta Drac
    3. Eta Herc
    4. Pi Herc
  4. Broadly seeing seeing disc of 5''-7''
    1. Taking a series of images at low exposure of Pi Herc
    2. Also live stacking Pi Herc to compare
  5. Jabbah in Blue Horsehead Nebula
    1. Not much to see, other than the double star Jabbah
  6. Moved to M57 – the Ring Nebula
  7. Moved to M51, but it wasn't very nice
  8. Wrote about PHD2 in wiki

Notes
Onkar has lots of ideas
We should keep track of humidity and temperature

ToDo

Data

Normal place

Weather

At 2200

29C in dome 

24C in control room

Humidity reported at 72%

At 0000

28C in dome

23C in control room

Humidity at 77%





1 Comment
Observing Session - Autoguiding and Seeing
Onkar Rekhi posted on Jul 11, 2023

Time

20230711T1900-20230712T0230

People

Onkar

Places

PHYS 433C, Dome

Goals

  1. more seeing frames
  2. continuing tracking/ag study on an astrometric field
  3. play with travel scope + celestron travel scope 70 combo, see if it can work as a guide scope

Log

  1. opening up
    1. onkar opened dome up at around 8pm
    2. turned on vent and propped open door w fan
    3. checked everything else is still fine
    4. installed asi294mm on axis
    5. plugged in finder scope cam
    6. opened mirror doors approx 9pm
    7. saw st4 cable disconnected from guidedream, not sure why that is, onkar proceeded to plug it back in
  2. travel scope shenanigans
    1. onkar very professionally mounted travel scope to the side of spotter scope
      1. note to self, take pictures of the mounts and fabricate a proper one
    2. installed asi178mm onto travel scope via a lot of adapters
    3. plugged in asi178mm into icron extender
    4. tried focusing on star
    5. could not focus on star, need to zoom out more or use barlow
    6. sad
  3. Arcturus
    1. slewed to it
    2. set object position
    3. phd2
      1. enabled multi-star guiding
      2. had to make a new profile, called it 20230711
      3. using finder scope cam (2600mm pro)
      4. looks pretty cool
    4. focusing
      1. got it dialed in at 2114.9 focus
    5. took 5 frames at 10s exposure w phd2 enabled
  4. vega
    1. pointing WAY off, ignore arcturus frames
    2. slewed to actual vega
    3. multi star guiding didn't work, phd2 is all over the place, using single star guiding instead
    4. took 5 frames of Vega at 30ms exposure
  5. reattempting arcturus
    1. guiding still kind of wonky, big jumps in dec
    2. fwhm monitor
    3. 5 frames at 10ms exposure, phd2 on
  6. m5
    1. if guiding wasnt bad before, it definitely is now
    2. taking 5 frames 3 min exposure each, but stars are looking a little ovalish
  7. m57 - ring nebula
    1. onkar wants to take pretty pictures
    2. onkar is going to take pretty pictures
    3. attempting ring w asi294mm long exposure, then with live stacking, then maybe switch to asi482mc long exp or live stacking
    4. asi294mm 3 min exposure:
      3. not bad at all
    5. swapped to 482mc
      3. note, there were visible clouds in the sky
  8. fun
    1. onkar pointed at many targets and forgot to write it down, but tldr took some live stacks of cool stuff
  9. closing up
    1. slewed to zenith
    2. closed mirror doors
    3. closed dome
    4. brought down on-axis cameras
    5. turned off remote power switch

Notes

  1. observatory is spooky alone

ToDo

Data

Saved to google drive

Weather