Saturday, July 29, 2017

#100 - Friday, July 28, 2017 - 100th Trip!!

This trip out with a telescope marks my 100th since starting two years ago!  It's so awesome that I've been able to get out as often as I have.  Some of those trips were visual observing, some were outreach, some were cloudy, and some were great all-nighters with lots of astrophotography.  It's been an incredible experience so far!


The memorial scope in its dome
Nikon D3100, 18mm @ f/3.5, 13s, ISO-3200

I got out to the observatory at sunset and got the memorial dome opened up and set up.  It would be a while yet until it was dark enough to image, so I set up the D5300 to do some timelapse of the moon and Jupiter setting.  Around 10 PM, I swapped the D5300 for the D3100 plugged into my old tablet (it doesn't work with an intervalometer, nor does it have an internal interval timer unfortunately) and got the D5300 plugged into the Vixen refractor.  It wasn't long after that that I started acquiring images on my first target: the Crescent Nebula.  I just imaged it on my C11, and it appears much smaller in the 5-inch refractor, but because it appears smaller, the light is more concentrated onto fewer pixels, and you can see much more of the inside area.

Date: 28 July 2017
Object: NGC 6888 Crescent Nebula
Camera: Nikon D5300
Telescope: Vixen NA140ssf
Accessories: Astronomik CLS filter
Mount: Losmandy Gemini II
Guide scope: Celestron 102mm
Guide camera: QHY5
Subframes: 20x420s (2h20m), ISO-1600
Darks: 54
Biases: 16 
Flats: 20
Temperature: 58-65F

I'm pretty stoked that not only can you see much more of the inside detail than I could before, but also a good bit of the background nebulosity!  So awesome!

After that, I switched targets to the Cocoon Nebula, which I've also imaged before on my 11-inch, but it would seem that that entire folder has mysteriously disappeared from my hard drive.  And since my backup drives synchronize, it's not on them either.  Time to start burning Blu-Rays instead...
Date: 28 July 2017
Object: IC 5146 Cocoon Nebula
Camera: Nikon D5300
Telescope: Vixen NA140ssf
Accessories: Astronomik CLS filter
Mount: Losmandy Gemini II
Guide scope: Celestron 102mm
Guide camera: QHY5
Subframes: 11x420s (1h17m), ISO-1600
Darks: 54
Biases: 16 
Flats: 20
Temperature: 58-65F

This is an emission nebula - hydrogen gas glows red from its hydrogen-alpha transition.  It also includes a dark nebula, molecular dust clouds that obscure background light.  You can see the veins in the nebula itself, as well as the dimming of the background stars surrounding it.

I was going to image the Cocoon for a little longer, but it was approaching zenith and was about to be cut off by the top of the dome, so I changed targets again over to the Helix Nebula.  Since it is much closer to the horizon, there was a lot more background light to remove.
Date: 28 July 2017
Object: NGC 7293 Helix Nebula
Camera: Nikon D5300
Telescope: Vixen NA140ssf
Accessories: Astronomik CLS filter
Mount: Losmandy Gemini II
Guide scope: Celestron 102mm
Guide camera: QHY5
Subframes: 14x420s (1h38m), ISO-1600
Darks: 54
Biases: 16 
Flats: 20
Temperature: 58-65F

The Helix Nebula is a planetary nebula about 700 lightyears away.  Normally these appear quite small in the telescope, but since this one is so close, it covers nearly the size of the full moon.  The star in the center is the white dwarf that the gas originated from, and the nebula spans 2.5 lightyears now.  

Again, I was going to image this one longer, but I was having a hard time staying awake, and I didn't want to have to get up to move the dome every half hour or so, and then park the scope later.  I watched Netflix all night on my phone in the warm room, which was fun (I finally have unlimited data!)  I unfolded the futon in the warm room, laid out my sleeping bag, and conked out shortly after 4 AM.  Normally I would have set up the tent I brought, but being out at the observatory alone at night is somewhat creepy, so I decided to sleep in the warm room instead.  I slept in only until 9:30 AM, since I wanted to get home and process my images!

A very successful 100th trip!

Here's a timelapse of the evening:



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