Saturn 2009.06.08 - Near perfect seeing

Object: Saturn

Planet

Origin:

ObservationManager - SolarSystem Catalog 1.0

Observer Michael A. Phillips Mr. Site Home Begin 2009-06-08 um 20:30:00-05:00 End 2009-06-08 um 20:40:00-05:00 Seeing 1 (very good) Optics C8i Eyepiece PowerMate (V=812.8) Filter Astronomik LRGB Color Camera DMK21AF04 Sitzung 2009-06-08 um 20:30:00-05:00

Visual impression Capture notes: Excellent seeing was forecast for a brief 3 hour period after sunset and before a drop back to average seeing. Fought equipment issues but got tons of great data, including a mutual moon event.  I wasn't sure what settings to use so I ran my regular routine hoping for something. Processing notes: Initially I thought I had caught the dimming of Tethys, but I think that because I start captures at dusk the brightness of the sky washed out the fainter moons like Tethys. I'm still not 100% happy with my routine and feel that with great seeing there's always more tweaking to be done!  Take good notes everyone! Observing notes: I didn't spend anytime visually observing as the equipment issues with the laptop and being excited for great seeing kept me distracted until the seeing went back to the usual average.

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References

Sessions: 2009-06-08 um 20:30:00-05:00

Begin:	2009-06-08 um 20:30:00-05:00
End:	2009-06-08 um 22:30:00-05:00

Weather:	Seeing: Perhaps 8-9/10 judged on Saturn only, the collapsed to 5+/10 Transparency:4/5 with a small T-storm cell ~15 mi away and HUGE one 45mi away which was VERY visible despitenot having any haze or clouds nearby.  STRANGE Forecast: Small window at dusk of 5/5 Seeing!
Equipment:	Ubuntu 9.04 Linux and custom coriander on Lenovo T61 (Cepheus)8" Celestron C8i SCTLymax Cat CoolerDMK 21AF042.5x PowerMateAstronomik LRGB filtersTrue Tek Color Filter Wheel with visu diag
Comments:	Great weather locally, but horrible in surrounding areas (see Transparency report!).I made great work of some of the local seeing on Saturn and was excited for a mutual moon event of Tethys and Mimas.I am not sure I captured it or not.Then the inevitable happened I ran out of disk space on the laptop!  Wait that was after the crash, yes linux crashes too!Sill no remote control of the laptop via the computer or long HC cable.I grabbed an external USB drive (formatted fat32) but recording at 15fps was not an issue.Moral of the story is even a short window of great seeing is worth the threat of storms and always be preparedwith a clean hard drive or spare usb drive nearby!

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Observer: Michael A. Phillips Mr.

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Site: Home

Longitude:	35.682°
Latitude:	-78.743°
Timezone:	UT-300 min

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Optics: C8i

Type:	SCT
Vendor:	Celestron
Aperture:	203.0 mm
Focal length:	2032.0 mm

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Eyepiece: PowerMate

Vendor:	TeleVue
Focal length:	2.5 mm

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Filter: Astronomik LRGB

Typ:

Color

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CCD Camera: DMK21AF04

Vendor:	The Image Source
Pixel:	640x480

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Fun with dancing Saturnian moons

Ful RES:

And animation!


And facebox labels!


Capture notes:
Seeing makes the rings quiver and nowhere as good as a few nights ago. I still have not touched the focus or collimation, but did capture Regulus in Red. My regular routine 1/15s per channel (still all channels full gain). Initially the fps were set wrong as I work the kinks out of this setup. That was not as bad as it sounds, I lost some frame per channel, but it was only 180s per channel. Fixed for the 2nd run at 300s per channel which is what I really like on Saturn especially with variable seeing. Seeing degraded towards the 3rd cap, despite more cooling between 2 and 3

Observer Michael A. Phillips Mr. Site Home Begin 2009-05-30 um 21:00:00-05:00 End 2009-05-30 um 22:21:00-05:00 Seeing 3 (fair) Optics C8i Eyepiece PowerMate (V=812.8) Filter Astronomik LRGB Color Camera DMK21AF04 Sitzung 2009-05-30 um 21:00:00-05:00

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References

Sessions: 2009-05-30 um 20:30:00-05:00

Begin:	2009-05-30 um 20:30:00-05:00
End:	2009-05-30 um 22:30:00-05:00

Weather:	Seeing: 7/10 Transparency: 3/5 Forecast: Initially, 4/5 for both, but recently clouds crept in, which didn't appear at all in dusk. I hope the seeing holds!
Equipment:	Ubuntu 9.04 Linux and custom coriander on Lenovo T61 (Cepheus) 8" Celestron C8i SCT Lymax Cat Cooler DMK 21AF04 2.5x PowerMate Astronomik LRGB filters True Tek Color Filter Wheel with visu diag
Comments:	Bad drift even after a rough leveling of the tripod and auto-two star eq align. I didn't check the errors per axis, but I can't survive the drift without a reposotion of Saturn after 1 - 2 minutes, which is only annoying as I've yet to get scope control in Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty jackalope in Kstars/Indi. Took a break from Saturn imaging ~2140 for re-cooling of scope... not sure it helped, but back imaging at 2202

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Observer: Michael A. Phillips Mr.

>> Observations <<

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Site: Home

Longitude:	35.682°
Latitude:	-78.743°
Timezone:	UT-300 min

>> Observations <<

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Optics: C8i

Type:	SCT
Vendor:	Celestron
Aperture:	203.0 mm
Focal length:	2032.0 mm

>> Observations <<

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Eyepiece: PowerMate

Vendor:	TeleVue
Focal length:	2.5 mm

>> Observations <<

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Filter: Astronomik LRGB

Typ:

Color

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CCD Camera: DMK21AF04

Vendor:	The Image Source
Pixel:	640x480

Created: 06/03/2009 20:14:11

Multiply here to stay!

http://digg.com/d1sGzU

BTW, long tail is an economic strategy...

Good Saturn while dodging the clouds May 28

Capture notes:
The forecast called for ~50% cloudiness at the beginning of the evening and I wasn't really prepared to go out as my computers weren't setup for my captures software. I was able to get things running pretty quickly and with some luck caught some data before the clouds came in for good. Seeing was as good as predicted. Amazingly enough, I have not had this scope outside in over 1 month! I didn't even touch the focus or collimation for these captures! Clouds killed a straight up 3x min per channel run, so I mixed a few captures together. I hate shooting through the clouds, but the atmosphere was actually very steady so that made up for it.

Processing notes:
Being on the new Ubuntu 9.04 install I had to reinstall all my programs. Registax 5 is now out in full and I tried that out. Initially I thought my saved HowTo-v7 wavelets scheme's were too harsh, but I think they still worked well. I tried a different, lighter scheme but wasn't impressed so I went back to the old scheme.

Observing notes:
Despite varying cloudiness the RGB image came out well. Everything is well balanced. Does anyone know what the dark line is that is below the rings in the EZ area?

4-Temp

My best Galactic photo yet...

Since the major upgrade to the 6" f/5 Schmidt-Newt OTA on the Celeston CGE with the right LPS-P2-FF filter, I've had lots of variables to work with, including my post-processing routine.

Now I can drive up to and past 10min subs with guiding on the 4" piggybacked skywatcher.  It's pretty cool to work with, but the weather has kept me from practicing very often.

May 19th, I got a try at M101, the CN challenge of the month.

Mine is far from the best, but it's a personal best for me.

I followed my v1 routine which will end up as a blog here soon enough.

Enjoy,

Mike

Shooting Stars Explained!

Not cool....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6RpCYGxzD0