22:05 – 05:50
@22:30 Omega Centauri 30s -20℃
@23:17 Centaurus A 30s -20℃
@00:02 M24 30s -20℃
@01:33 M6 30s -20℃
@02:38 M25 30s -20℃
@03:26 LDN 564 300s -20℃
Flats taken
Darks 300s -20℃ (take tomorrow) / 0.35s -25℃ – DONE
22:00 – 07:00
First thing tonight is to complete taking the darks from yesterday, so I need 20 x 120s -20℃, but also the flat darks I forgot for the 0.35ms flats. Then I will move to taking longer images tonight. The challenge with open clusters is that you need short exposures so you don’t oversaturate the stars.
@22:50 Omega Centauri 30s -20℃
@23:20 Centaurus A 300s -20℃
@00:09 Makemake 120s -20℃ x 10
@00:29 Haumea 120s -20℃ x 10
@01:07 M8 Lagoon 300s -20℃ x 24 (focus drifted so review later images)
@03:22 Comet C/2017 K2 PANSTARRS 120s -20℃ x 7
@03:53 M21 30s -20℃ x 90
@05:00 M20 & M21 120s x5
@05:45 LDN 574 300s x 9 which was a mistake
Dark Flats – 0.35s -20℃ – DONE / 0.35s – 25℃ (tomorrow)
Flats – 0.35s -20℃ – DONE
Darks 30s -20℃ – DONE / 300 -20℃ (tomorrow) / 120 -20℃ DONE
22:55 – 08:00
Finally got our bags today from the airport. Having arrives on the 2:05pm flight and not hearing from BA by 4pm, Lawrence and I headed off down the mountain in search of the 4 missing bags. It took just over an hour to arrive back in the Cicar car park.
Once there we headed inside to be told the the Iberia desk, which deals with lost and late baggage was only accessible the arrivals hall and so we were told to go through the exit doors and not to worry about the police. So we nervously😱 walked through and were greated with the sight of all the lost bags!
It took some 20 mins to sort through the paperwork before we were pushing the bags back to the car for the 1 hour drive back up the TF1 and TF38.
After a hearty dinner, which was absolutely delicious and filling, we headed outside around 9pm to start setting up. This took me the best part of 2 hours to put the gear together after ferrying it from upstairs and then another 60 mins to calibrate and be ready to image. First up tonight is M23.
@ 23:55 started on M23 Open Cluster, 30s -25℃ exposures so not to saturate the stars.
after 87 images escape hung!
@ 01:20 started on M18 Open Cluster 60s, 10 -20℃ or so images this time using TSX to image and then refocused and took 80 images in total.
@ 3:22 started on M26 Open Cluster -20℃ took 68 at 60s
Pluto 4:41am 120s -20℃ I took 10 frames
@5:21 M73 Open Cluster 60s -20℃ took 60 frames
Flats 0.35s -20 & 0.35s -25℃
Darks – 30s -25℃ – Done / 60s -20℃ – Done / 120s -20℃ (tomorrow night) / Flat Darks (tomorrow night)
22:40 – 00:31
Visual this evening on the 22″ Dob. The 120 Esprit is still off the MEII so the IMT3b observatory is out of action for a few weeks whilst it is not balanced. The MyT and 120 Esprit are now packed away for the Tenerife trip which is really exciting, first time in over 2 years!
Bob came round this evening and we explored the rather bright sky given the time of year with the dob. So what what did we see?
Observing Notes
M5 seen 23:21 31mm and 13mm better than M3
M3 resolved easily 23:17 31mm and 13mm more compact than M5
M51 massive filled fov in 13mm much smaller in 31mm
M92 seen both eyepieces and very bright
M57 13mm only very large AV central star, very big ring
